Green-winged Teal
Anas crecca
Photo taken at Gilbert, Arizona, February 2009. This is the male; females are drabber, being mostly mottled brown. Both males and females have s patch of emerald green in the wings that may be concealed when the bird is at rest.
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Green-winged Teal is a winter visitor to the Sonoran Desert. The drake (male) is easily recognized by the rich red-brown head with an emerald swatch extending back from the eye and down the nape of the neck. There is a white comma on the shoulder and a pale yellow and black rump. They dabble in shallow ponds reaching submerged vegetation and invertebrates. The range of this small duck extends across the northern latitudes of both the New and Old Hemispheres. The Old World population is given subspecies rank and has the common name Eurasian Teal; surprisingly an occasional Eurasian Teal finds its way to winter in the Sonoran Desert via Siberia and Alaska.