Friday's Foto

The Blue-winged Teal is a member of the waterfowl genus "anas", which includes mallards, wigeons, teals, pintails and shovelers. Their preferred habitats are calm water bodies such as inland marshes, lakes, ponds, pools, and shallow streams with dense emergent vegetation rather than large open water and fast currents. They are usually the first ducks to head south in the autumn and the last to head north in the spring. Blue-winged Teal currently breed in New York State, primarily in the St. Lawrence Valley and Lake Plains regions, although their numbers have been declining.