Blue-winged Teal

Pairs and small groups of this tiny dabbling duck inhabit shallow ponds and wetlands across much of North America. Blue-winged Teal are long distance migrants, with some birds heading all the way to South America for the winter. Therefore, they take off early on spring and fall migration, leaving their breeding grounds in the United States and Canada well before other species in the fall.

The Blue-winged Teal is among the latest ducks to migrate northward in spring, and one of the first to migrate southward in fall. The Blue-winged Teal migrates over long distances. One individual banded in Alberta was shot in Venezuela a month later.