27 Feb A Green-Winged Teal at Flemming Park

The small bird shown above, swimming with a pair of black duck-mallard hybrids, is not their duckling. It’s a mature, female green-winged teal, an entirely different species that that is North America’s smallest dabbling (or surface-feeding, non-diving) duck, patrolling the beach at Sir Sanford Flemming Parkon the Northwest Arm of Halifax Harbour last month.

Here’s the same bird, distinguished by an iridescent patch on its wing, feeding in the same waters.

Another size comparison: the female Green-Winged teal with hybrid black-duck mallard:

As with so many bird species, the male is much more colourful. Here’s a male green-wing, photographed a few years ago at Sullivan’s Pond, Dartmouth.

The same bird checking out the grass at the pond’s edge:

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“I come across these Teals every so often,” says photographer Joshua Barss Donham. “Last winter, a female a Point Pleasant Park, this fall a female at Catamaran Pond in Spryfield. And two winters ago, a female at Oak Hill Lake in Dartmouth. They show up every so often at Sullivan’s Pond, and in May 2009, a colourful male hung around there for several weeks, getting very used to being around people who would feed it. Green-winged Teals are about the size of a well fed pigeon—such a striking difference in size when seen next to a Mallard or Black Duck.”

The range map at right is from Cornell University’s AllAbourtBirds website.