122 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
body without huffy. Adult female: Upperparts dark brown, feathers of back and 
scapulars edged with buff, ashy or whitish; breast, sides, and flanks similar but of 
lighter tone, and under tail coverts still lighter; wing nearly like male but wing 
bar before speculum sometimes white; iris, bill, legs and feet much as in male. 
Young in Juvenal plumage: Similar to female 
but tail feathers more blunt at tips. 
Com pa hi sons. —This is the smallest of 
our ducks. In any plumage lack of chalky 
blue on the wings distinguishes it from the 
Blue-winged and Cinnamon Teal, and lack 
of white on the wings from the small Buffle- 
head (Taverner). (See pp. 124, 126, 141.) 
Range. — Breeds in northern North 
America, practically across the continent 
Fig. 11. Green-winged Teal but sparingly in the east; from north¬ 
western Alaska, northwestern Mackenzie, 
Great Slave Lake, Hudson Bay, and Labrador south to southeastern Canada, 
Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, northern New Mexico, northwestern Utah, north¬ 
western Nevada, and south-central California; winters from southeastern Alaska, 
British Columbia, Montana, Nebraska, the Great Lakes and eastward south to 
Bahamas and Lesser Antilles, British Honduras, and southern Lower California. 
State Records. —Breeding not rarely in southern Colorado it was to be 
expected that the Green-winged Teal would nest also in New r Mexico and this it 
undoubtedly does more often than the single positive and definite breeding record 
would indicate; Mitchell says that it breeds in eastern San Miguel County, but he 
gives no definite locality. (At Lake Burford, in June, 1918, about five pairs were 
apparently breeding and a few males which had presumably nested elsewhere, 
appeared June 14, 1918 (Wetmore). It is found on the mountain lakes in Colfax 
County (Charles Springer, 1925)J 
In migration it is one of the more common ducks throughout the lower parts 
of the State and even up to 9,000 feet in the Chuska Mountains (Bailey). In the 
fall migration it was already abundant at Beaver Lake, 7,500 feet, by August 26, 
1908 (Birdseye); and on August 28, 1845, was found common near the headwaters 
of the Canadian River (Abert). Flocks were seen on the Maxwell reservoir near 
Koehler Junction off and on from August 19 to October 24, 1913 (Kalmbach). It 
remains common through September. It was noted in Dry Diamond Canyon, 
Black Range, September 13, 1915; [many w'ere seen between Albuquerque and 
Socorro, September 4, 1918 (Ligon)J; and it was one of the most abundant ducks 
on Lake Burford September 27-October 3, 1904 (Bailey). Most of the flocks 
depart during October; but it was noted as late as October 20, 1898, at Roswell 
(Barber), and was still present October 26-31, 1908, at San Rafael. About 20 were 
seen and one collected at Clayton, October 23, 1893 (Seton). [Near Albuquerque 
the main flight disappeared about November 10, in 1917 and 1918 (Leopold).1 
Formerly it wintered abundantly on the Mimbres and the lower Rio Grande 
(Henry), and even at the present time a few winter in the State north to Bear 
Canyon east of the San Andres Mountains, where they were noted in January, 1903 
(Gaut), [to San Acacia south of Belen (Leopold, 1919)1, and to Rinconada, where 
some wintered 1903-1904 (Surber). On the Carlsbad Bird Reserve, they were noted 
February, 1914 (Wilder; noted January, 1915, and the winter of 1915-16 [600 seen, 
December, 1916; also on the Rio Grande Bird Reserve (Elephant Butte) found 
common, November 23-December 9, 1916 (Willett); and 12 seen 24 miles northeast 
of Engle, December 8, 1918, at a windmill tank at about 4,700 feet (Ligon).| 
