Tag Archives: Blue-winged Teal

Blue-winged Teals

Despite the green patch seen in the middle duck here, these are Blue-winged Teals.

Blue-winged Teals
Blue-winged Teals

A slight shift of the wing and you can see just the powder blue patch, and the more distinctive white patch on the male’s head.

Blue-winged Teals
Blue-winged Teals

This trio had all been either feeding or bathing.

Blue-winged Teal
Blue-winged Teal

A good shake put the feathers to rights.

Blue-winged Teal
Blue-winged Teal

Orlando Wetlands, Christmas, FL
January 18, 2023

Orlando Wetlands Park is 1650 acres of man-made wetland designed to provide advanced treatment for reclaimed water from the City of Orlando and other local cities.

Blue-winged Teals, Alert, Alert

I mentioned in my recent post Eagle: Fish for Dinner, that a pair of Bald Eagles has taken up a new flight pattern over the rookery pond.

Blue-winged Teals
Blue-winged Teals, Duck weed looking gold in the late afternoon sun

This causes the ducks all sorts of consternation and on this afternoon they alerted me to the Eagle’s presence.

Blue-winged Teals Flying Over
Blue-winged Teals Flying Over

I only know that these are Blue-winged Teals because I saw them before they took off.

Blue-winged Teals Flying Over
Blue-winged Teals Flying Over

The Eagle that I saw was long gone by the time this flock got into the air, possibly already having snagged his dinner at a different pond.

Blue-winged Teals Flying Over
Blue-winged Teals Flying Over

As a safety measure the ducks  circled the pond three or four times before landing again on the far side.

Blue-winged Teals Flying Over
Blue-winged Teals Flying Over

January 14, 2021

Blue-winged Teal Vacuums

Blue-winged Teals often eat in circles, almost like a choreographed dance of vacuum cleaners. There was plenty of duckweed to go around on this day and the wind was keeping it concentrated in one side of the pond, keeping the ducks near the walking path.

Blue Winged Teals Feeding on Duckweed
Blue Winged Teals Feeding on Duckweed

The duck’s movements leaves trails in the duckweed, indistinguishable from a path made by an underwater Alligator.

Blue Winged Teal
Male Blue Winged Teal

These three female Teals stayed in a row for quite awhile, perhaps because there is safety in numbers.

Blue Winged Teals Feeding on Duckweed
Blue Winged Teals Feeding on Duckweed

When the light hits them just right the iridescence on the males’ heads is quite pretty.

Blue Winged Teals Feeding on Duckweed
Blue Winged Teals Feeding on Duckweed

Blue-winged Teals Over the Marsh

Last Saturday was a spectacular bird day at Bear Island Wildlife Management Area and these Blue-winged Teals were one of the many groups of birds I saw. The water had been lowered in some of the back ponds which attracts the wading birds, shore birds and migrating ducks.

The reeds at the edge of the canals are above my head in most places so I did not have a clear view of the teals until they took off.

Blue-winged Teals in Flight
Blue-winged Teals in Flight