Inexperienced-winged Teal are discovered throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Birds within the Previous World, Widespread Teal, breed from Europe by Asia to the Aleutian Islands. New World birds, Inexperienced-winged Teal, are discovered throughout Alaska and Canada to many components of the northern United States. The 2 populations at the moment are thought of to be races of the identical species. This standing could change, as a result of genetic analysis exhibits that, though the races share one haplotype, they in any other case have very totally different mitochondrial DNA.
Since transferring to Washington, Erika and I’ve looked for Widespread Teal. These geese are of informal incidence alongside each coasts of North America. We now have scanned hundreds of Inexperienced-wing Teal. On 1 March 2022 we met succeeded. Widespread Teal lack a white, verticle line behind their breasts. They’ve sturdy pale strains throughout the higher sides of their faces and below their eyes. Widespread Teal heads are barely paler than these of Inexperienced-winged Teal. Maybe the white patches on the again ends of Widespread Teal are a brighter white than the yellowish spots on Inexperienced-winged Teal. The edges of the Widespread Teal are extra coarsely barred than on the American race. Our duck exhibits all these area marks. Much less apparent is a white, horizontal stripe shaped by the scapular feathers that needs to be apparent on Widespread Teals. Notice that the scapulars on our duck are white-edged, not darkish like on a Inexperienced-winged Teal. Not having this stripe obvious could point out that this chicken is a hybrid, however hybrids normally present the Inexperienced-wing’s vertical facet stripe. Due to the preponderance of all the opposite area marks, we’ve got no bother calling this particular person as a Widespread Teal.
