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Green-winged teal(Anas carolinensis)
Phylum —chordata
Class — aves
Order — anseriformes
Family — anatidae
Genus –anas
Appearance
Male green-winged teal have a chestnut head with an iridescent green to purple patch extending from the eyes to the nape of the neck. The chest is pinkish-brown with black speckles, and the back, sides and flanks are vermiculated gray, separated from the chest by a white bar. The wing coverts are brownish-gray with a green speculum. The bill is dark slate and the legs and feet are dark gray. Female green-winged teal are mottled brown with a dark brown line that extends from the bill through the eye. The bill is dark gray and the legs and feet are olive-gray to brownish-gray.
Length: 12.2-15.3 in (31-39 cm). Weight: 4.9-17.6 oz (140-500 g). Wingspan: 20.5-23.2 in (52-59 cm).
Habitat
The green-winged teal breeds from the Aleutian Islands, northern Alaska, Mackenzie River delta, northern Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Labrador south to central California, central Nebraska, central Kansas, southern Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland, and the Maritime Provinces.
The green-winged teal winters from southern Alaska and southern British Columbia east to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and south to Central America. It also winters in Hawaii.
Behavior
Green-winged teals are fast, agile, buoyant flyers. They can take off straight from the water without running across the surface. In winter green-winged teal gather in roosting flocks of up to 50,000 birds.
Diet
Green-winged teal eat mainly aquatic invertebrates and seeds.
Reproduction
Courtship starts in the fall and peaks in January and February; they choose new partners each year. Males try to secure a mate using an elaborate set of movements and vocal displays, with groups of up to 25 males courting females both on the water and in courtship flights. Although most pairs form on the wintering grounds, pair formation continues during spring migration and on the breeding grounds. The male defends its mate from copulation attempts by other males, then deserts the female once incubation is underway. A few hours after they hatch the chicks can swim, dive, walk, and forage for themselves, although the female continues to brood them at night and to protect them when the weather turns cold.
In captivity
Lifespan in captivity is up to 30 years.
In summer,green-winged teals are kept in outdoor enclosures. The minimum size of the enclosure is 4 square meters: one meter fora bird.
In winter, teals should be transferred to an insulated enclosure with a temperature of at least +15°C.It is desirable to equip the enclosure with additives in the form of branches and perches.In the winter room, you must install a pool with running or frequently replaced water.
As a winter bedding for waterfowl, you can use soft hay, which is laid out in places where birds rest.
The diet includes a mixture of plant and animal feeds. From vegetable feeds give: grain feed-corn, wheat, barley, millet, oatmeal, wheat bran, grass. To these feeds you should add meat and fish meal, chalk, small shell, gammarus. In the warm season, it is good to give various greens - cut dandelion leaves, lettuce, plantain, duckweed. Good food for ducks - wet mixture of grated carrots, bran, various cereals.Fish and minced meat is also suitable.During working out a diet it should be calculated that the amount of raw protein does not exceed 30%.
Green-winged teals are friendly to other birds, so they can be kept in the same pond with other members of the Anatidae family.
In April, green-winged teals can be placed in an open aviary, where you need to install nesting houses. Their dimensions should not be less than 25x25 cm (bottom) and 50 cm high. The cover of the house must be removable. The tray is 12-13 cm in diameter. The houses are located at least 1-3 meters above the floor. It is optimal to arrange 3-4 nests at different heights and in different places, so that they can choose what they like.Ducks independently incubate, breed and raise young ducklings.
