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Wildlife
- Birds - |
Blue-winged Teal
(Anas discors) M, B |
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RANGE: Breeds from east-central Alaska and southern Mackenzie to
southern Quebec and southwestern Newfoundland, south to
northeastern California, east across to central Louisiana,
central Tennessee and eastern North Carolina. Winters from
southern California to western and southern Texas, the Gulf
Coast and North Carolina on the Atlantic Coast south to South
America.
STATUS: Common throughout range.
HABITAT: Prefers wetlands on rolling tallgrass prairie but is
also found in mixed shortgrass prairie and boreal and deciduous
forests. More of a shoreline inhabitant than one of open water,
prefers calm water or sluggish currents to fast water. Uses
rocks protruding above water, muskrat houses, trunks or limbs of
fallen trees, or bare stretches of shoreline or mudflats as
resting sites. Winters on shallow inland freshwater marshes and
on brackish and saltwater marshes.
SPECIAL HABITAT REQUIREMENTS: Marshes, sloughs, ponds, lakes,
and sluggish streams. Strongest nesting habitat
association along the edges of freshwater marsh.
NEST: Builds nests on dry ground in dense grassy sites such as
bluegrass, hayfields, and sedge meadows, where the vegetation
ranges from 8 to 24 inches high at the onset of nesting, or
under bushes, usually within several hundred yards of open
water; occasionally on a sedge tussock or muskrat house, in
slough grass, or in alfalfa fields. In good habitat nests
communally.
FOOD: Prefers to feed on mud flats, in fields, or in shallow
water where there is floating and shallowly submerged vegetation
plus abundant small aquatic animal life. Consumes a diet that is
70 percent vegetative, consisting of seeds of sedges; grasses,
pondweeds, and smartweeds; stems and leaves of aquatic plants;
and snails, mollusks, crustaceans, and insects.
REFERENCES: Adamus et al. 2001, Bellrose 1976, Bennet 1938,
DeGraff et al. 1980, Johnsgard 1975b, Miller 1999, Palmer 1976a,
Shunk 2004. |
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