Male Cinnamon Teal (Spatula cyanoptera). Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve, Las Vegas (December 10)

Male Cinnamon Teal (Spatula cyanoptera)

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Male Cinnamon Teal (Spatula cyanoptera). Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve, Las Vegas (December 10)
Male Cinnamon Teal (Spatula cyanoptera). Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve, Las Vegas (December 10)

Common Name: Cinnamon Teal
Scientific Name: Spatula cyanoptera

Description: The adult male has a cinnamon-red head and body with a brown back, a red eye and a dark bill. The adult female has a mottled brown body, a pale brown head, brown eyes and a grey bill and is very similar in appearance to a female blue-winged teal; however, its overall color is richer, the lores, eye line, and eye ring are less distinct. Its bill is longer and more spatulate. Male juvenile resembles a female cinnamon or blue-winged teal but their eyes are red. These birds feed by dabbling. They mainly eat plants; their diet may include molluscs and aquatic insects.

Distribution: Their breeding habitat is marshes and ponds in western United States and extreme southwestern Canada. Cinnamon teal generally select new mates each year. They are migratory and most winter in northern South America and the Caribbean, generally not migrating as far as the blue-winged teal. Some winter in California and southwestern Arizona. Two subspecies of cinnamon teal reside within the Andes of South America.
Habitat: It lives in marshes and ponds, and feeds mostly on plants.

Male Cinnamon Teal (Spatula cyanoptera). Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve, Las Vegas (December 10)
Male Cinnamon Teal (Spatula cyanoptera). Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve, Las Vegas (December 10)
Cinnamon Teal (Spatula cyanoptera). Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve, Las Vegas (January 12)
Cinnamon Teal (Spatula cyanoptera). Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve, Las Vegas (January 12)
Cinnamon Teal (Spatula cyanoptera). Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve, Las Vegas (January 6)
Cinnamon Teal (Spatula cyanoptera). Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve, Las Vegas (January 6)

References:

Identifying Wintering Female Blue-winged and Cinnamon Teal in the Central Valley, California