Blue-winged Teal

How to find it

Start with the Tempisque River basin and the Río Frío area, where it is abundant in winter. Boat trips are the classic way to look, through the mangroves and lagoons at Palo Verde or along the Río Frío. Watch the water level, since the birds move with it. In one northern lake the water drains in the dry season, from December to April, bringing a large influx of migratory waterbirds, the teal among them. Check flocks in flight, when the blue wing patch shows best. Early in the season, remember that males may still look dull like females.

How to recognise it

Adult males in Costa Rica have a dark bluish-grey head with a white crescent on the face. The underparts are pinkish buff with black spots.

Females have a blackish crown and eye stripe, a white spot at the bill base, a dark grey bill and yellowish legs. The breast is brown and heavily scaled.

Males arrive in autumn in dull plumage like the female's. They gain breeding plumage in January or February, so early-season males can lack the white face crescent.

Both sexes have sky-blue patches on the forewing, a green speculum and yellow legs.

What it sounds like

Recording: Liren Varghese, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

This is a dabbling duck that feeds in shallow water. Birds pick at the water surface, and sometimes up-end with the head under water and the tail in the air.

When startled, groups burst into flight fast and erratically, and they stay in a tight formation.

In Costa Rica the teal makes pronounced seasonal moves, tied to changes in the water level of its habitat.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it can turn up in almost any still or slow water habitat, including river pools, salt pans, estuaries and flooded pasture. It ranges from the lowlands to mid elevations, and sometimes to 3,000 m on migration.

It is most abundant in the Tempisque River basin and the Río Frío area. Laguna Concavas in Cartago province shows that it also turns up at highland lakes. Across its range it favours shallow freshwater wetlands with plenty of invertebrates.

When to see it

The teal arrives in September and October and stays until April or May. At Palo Verde the Tempisque floods in the wet season and forms marshes that welcome migrants, then through the dry season, December to May, the marshes shrink to pools and the migrants leave for their northern nesting grounds.

Similar birds

The female looks like a female Cinnamon Teal, though she is smaller and less warm brown, with a more strongly marked face, an eye line and a broader, clearer pale area at the bill base. Female Green-winged Teal lack the blue wing patch, are warmer brown and have no white near the bill base. Male Northern Shovelers also show blue in the wing, but are much larger with a huge bill. This is range-wide advice.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Rican sources list several common names for this duck: cerceta, cerceta aliazul, pato canadiense and zarceta. Carraco is also given.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it as a migrant (M), a non-breeding visitor from the Nearctic, and the IUCN lists it as Least Concern with an increasing population of about 7.8 million mature birds.

Photography tips

The blue wing patch shows better in flight than when the bird sits on the water, so be ready when a flock lifts. Groups flush fast and low in tight formation.