Green-winged Teal Anas carolinensis 美洲綠翅鴨
Category I. Accidental.
IDENTIFICATION
Very similar to Eurasian Teal but differs in having a vertical white line on side of breast and lacking much of the pale surround to the green head patch.
The female has a slightly larger green speculum, buff sides to the undertail coverts, buff greater covert bar (especially the inners), a stronger face pattern (more often with pale loral spot) and a more conspicuous dark cheek stripe.
In flight the buffer tips to the greater secondary coverts and a slightly more extensive greenish area in the secondaries may be visible.
VOCALISATIONS
Similar types of call to those of Eurasian Teal. The male utters a whistle when displaying.
The female has a quacking call.
DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE
All records have occurred in the ponds and gei wai of Mai Po NR in association with Eurasian Teal.
OCCURRENCE
1986: a male from 23 February to 23 March (Chalmers 1987).
1997: a male on 7 February.
2011: a male during 20-21 February and 4-5 April.
2016: a female on 27 February.
BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING & DIET
No observations.
RANGE & SYSTEMATICS
Monotypic. North American counterpart of Eurasian Teal breeding from Alaska southeast through Canada to northern parts of the U.S.A.; winters from the Pacific coast of Canada south through western and southern U.S.A. into Mexico and the Caribbean (Johnson et al. 2020). In China there are a small number of records along the east and southeast coast (Liu and Chen 2020).
CONSERVATION STATUS
IUCN: Least Concern. Population trend increasing.
Johnson, K., C. Carboneras, D. A. Christie, and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.gnwtea.01
Chalmers, M. L. (1987). Records Committee Report 1986. Hong Kong Bird Report 1986: 13-26.
Liu, Y. and Y. H. Chen (eds) (2020). The CNG Field Guide to the Birds of China (in Chinese). Hunan Science and Technology Publication House, Changsha.
