Green-winged Teal

How to find it

Be realistic: any sighting here is a bonus. Scan quiet freshwater marshes, the habitat Costa Rican sources say it prefers. Look for a very small duck on calm water or on mud flats, and remember that birds are usually solitary. Check the wing for a green patch edged in white. Duck hunters have reported several unconfirmed kills in the Tempisque River basin, but those reports have not been verified, so it is not a reliable place to look.

How to recognise it

Size is the first clue, because this is the smallest North American dabbling duck.

The breeding male has a chestnut head with a green eye patch. He also shows a green wing patch edged in white, visible in flight or at rest. Spanish-language sources describe a cream breast with black spots and a vertical white bar on the side.

Females are light brown and look much like a female Mallard. Spanish sources describe them as greyish brown with strongly scaled upperparts and a white belly. Their small size, shape and green wing patch set them apart from most other ducks.

A Costa Rican source adds that other teal species have larger blue patches on the wing, which helps separate this one from them.

What it sounds like

Recording: Евгений Маринкин, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

Costa Rican sources note that birds are usually solitary, so a single small duck is the likelier picture than a flock. Elsewhere in its range it tends to stay in calm water.

It feeds mostly on seeds, stems and leaves of water plants, and it favours mud flats for feeding. It sometimes eats insects, mollusks and crustaceans.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica this teal prefers freshwater marshes. Across its wider winter range it uses freshwater or brackish marshes, ponds, streams and estuaries, and it stays in calm water. The species winters south to Central America, and the one firm Costa Rican record comes from Ochomogo.

Similar birds

A female looks much like a female Mallard, but she is smaller and shows the green wing patch. The American male has a vertical white stripe on the side of the breast, while the Eurasian teal has a horizontal white stripe along the back. Females of the two are very hard to separate.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Besides the official Spanish name Cerceta Aliverde, Costa Rican sources also call this duck Zarceta, and the official list adds Carraco. One Spanish-language site also lists Cerceta, pato canadiense and cerceta aliazul in its duck listing, though some of these probably refer to other teal.

Status and conservation

The official Costa Rican bird list gives it the status M, migrant, and in practice it is only casual to accidental here.