When do green winged teal migration

Their breasts have creamy pink feathers with light brown spots, while their back and sides are a finely mottled black and white.

While flying, males and females show a green speculum patch on an otherwise uniformly brown wing All About Birds Likewise, the bill of both sexes is dark gray and the visually even comically short legs are dark or brownish gray Ducks Unlimited Hens and nonbreeding drakes are more drab, with mottled brown and tan feathers over their bodies and a cream-colored tail All About Birds Hens choose the nesting site in the spring, which is usually located within yards of water All About Birds Generally, nests are built in dense sedge meadows, grasslands, or shrub thickets with a vegetated canopy above.

Hens pull various plant materials together into a bowl and line the nest with downy feathers. Between 6 and 11 creamy or pale buff eggs are laid per clutch, and hens incubate them for 20 to 24 days National Audubon Society Males typically abandon the hen shortly after incubation starts NatureServe The precocial chicks can feed themselves, swim, and even dive, but the hen often tends and protects them until they are fledged.

Being a dabbling duck, the green-winged teal feeds by floating on the surface and dipping its head underwater or tipping up in shallow water. They mostly eat aquatic plants and seeds e.

Green-winged teal, like some other duck species, have comb-like growths i. Adult teal can easily dive underwater to escape most predators, but eggs and young are more vulnerable to predation. Mink, foxes, raccoons, and skunks are common predators of young or eggs. The green-winged teal breeds in the summer throughout the northern half of the U.

Blue-winged teal are relatively uncommon in the Pacific Flyway, where they are greatly outnumbered by their close relatives, cinnamon teal. In early fall, hot, dry weather can limit the habitat available for migrating teal, other waterfowl, and shorebirds. Wetlands conserved by Ducks Unlimited and its partners under the North American Waterfowl Management Plan NAWMP provide critical feeding and resting areas for the birds during the fall migration, and again in the spring as they return north to their breeding grounds.

In many areas of the southern and central U. These privately managed habitats, along with wetlands on federal and state waterfowl management areas, serve as oases for the birds while migrating across parched, autumn landscapes. Although small numbers of blue-winged teal winter in the extreme southern U. A few wayfaring individuals cross the equator, including a blue-winged teal banded near Renoun, Saskatchewan, which was shot six months later in Peru-7, miles away. Cinnamon teal, which have similar migration habits as blue-winged teal, largely winter in Mexico and Central America, where they intermingle with wintering bluewings in some areas.

Blue-winged and cinnamon teal are among several species of waterfowl and other migratory birds that benefit from wetlands conserved by Ducks Unlimited of Mexico DUMAC. The organization focuses its habitat restoration efforts in critical wetland systems in Mexico, where more than 80 percent of waterfowl in that nation spend the winter.

Green-winged Teal Anas crecca. Quick Facts Species Native Size Range Visits the Chesapeake Bay region beginning in autumn and leaves in late winter to migrate back to its northern breeding grounds.

Related Critters Greater Scaup Aythya marila. Northern Pintail Anas acuta. Northern Shoveler Anas clypeata. The Green-winged Teal's diet is variable depending on season and location, with more animal matter consumed during the spring and summer, and more plants eaten in the fall and winter. Plant matter usually consists of the seeds of grasses, sedges, and pond-weeds.

Animal matter is most often insect larvae, other aquatic invertebrates, and sometimes fish eggs. Green-winged Teals usually arrive at the breeding grounds with pair bonds formed. Nests are usually located in grasses and weeds in meadows, open woodlands, or brush, and are usually within two hundred feet of water.

The female builds the nest on the ground. It is well hidden by low vegetation that often is dense enough to form a full canopy over the nest. The nest itself is usually a shallow depression, filled with grasses, twigs, and leaves, lined with down. Incubation is by the female alone, and lasts for 20 to 24 days, during which time the pair bond dissolves, and the male leaves the nesting area.

Within a few hours of hatching, the 8 to 9 ducklings leave the nest with the female to look for their own food. They may all return to the nest at night for a few days. The young fledge at about 35 days. Nearly all populations of Green-winged Teal are migratory, although they remain farther north during the winter than other species of North American teal. After incubation begins, the males migrate to molting grounds where they gather and go through a period of flightlessness.

The molt migration may be to a spot close by, or may be over one hundred miles away.