14 inches long with a wingspan of 23 inches. The Green-winged Teal is a small, short-necked, small-billed, dabbling duck. The speculum is green. The breeding male has a dark bill. The head is a rich rust color with an iridescent green face patch sweeping through the eye and tapering at the back of the head. The chest is buff with dark spotting. The flanks and back are gray with a vertical white line at the fore part of the flanks. The belly is white. undertail coverts are black with a very noticeable triangular yellowish patch along each side. Breeding plumage is worn from fall through early summer. The female has a dark gray bill. There is a white belly and a white breast spotted with brown. The back is a mottled dark brown and the head and neck are pale brown.
The Green-winged Teal is a common migrant in the Omaha area but uncommonly seen in the Forest in the Great Marsh or flying over. The best times are March and April and again in October and November.
The Green-winged Teal is North America’s smallest dabbling duck. It is a fast and agile flier. A migrant along all the major flyways, this is the second most abundant duck taken by hunters in North America. Because its breeding areas are far from human activity, however, its numbers have remained high and are even increasing. Individuals form monogamous pairs for one breeding season, but paired males also attempt forced extra-pair copulations. Males desert females during incubation, so the female must provide all incubation and parental care. In some regions, it forages day and night. It can sometimes forages on seed it picks from the surface of the water or mud. It also dabbles and eats insect larvae. The call of the female is a sharp “quack”. That of the male is a squeaky “chyerk”.
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