blue winged teal

Description:

spotted at brazos bend. The Blue-winged Teal is 40 centimeters (16 in) long, with a wingspan of 58 centimeters (23 in), and a weight of 370 grams (13 oz).The adult male has a greyish blue head with a white facial crescent, a light brown body with a white patch near the rear and a black tail. The adult female is mottled brown, and has a whitish area at base of bill. Both sexes have sky-blue wing coverts, a green speculum, and yellow legs.They have two molts per year and a third molt in their first year. The call of the male is a short whistle; the female's call is a soft quack.

Habitat:

Blue-winged Teal inhabit shoreline more often than open water and prefer calm water or sluggish currents to fast water. They inhabit inland marshes, lakes, ponds, pools, and shallow streams with dense emergent vegetation. In coastal areas, breeding occurs in salt-marsh meadows with adjoining ponds or creeks.Blue-winged Teal use rocks protruding above water, muskrat houses, trunks or limbs of fallen trees, bare stretches of shoreline, or mud flats for resting sites. Blue-winged Teal winter on shallow inland freshwater marshes and brackish and saltwater marshes