Green-winged teal - small but mighty.

Smallest dabbling duck. Winters furthest north of all teal species. Beautiful cinnamon head with iridescent green crescent through and behind the eye. However you describe it, the green-winged teal is a remarkable bird.

I photographed this particular duck while visiting Burnaby Lake two days ago. I am not able to get all that close to them normally, but the fact they have acclimated to humans has allowed unusual access. I managed to get a close-up photograph of the head while it was preening. I just love the strong colours bursting from the male's head.

There are two unusual things about this photograph. The first, and most obvious, is the teal's speculum is blue and not green. If you look carefully at the crescent-shaped green strip that runs before and after the eye you will detect the presence of blue pin-feathers as the stripe progresses. My research tells me that both the blue on the head and the wing are "a trick of the light" due to their glossy surfaces (click here to see reference). I suppose it is possible that the colours are, in fact, blue; a result of gene expression gone awry. I would like to know what you think.

The second unusual thing is that the bird had its eyes closed in the shot. I liked the overall image but found that it lost some of its appeal because of the closed eye. Fortunately, I had taken several images of the bird and found a profile image where the bird had its eyes open. It was a simple matter of copying, pasting, rotating, and fitting the eye to achieve the result I was hoping for. It may seem like cheating but the truth is I do this regularly for photos of people where someone has their eyes closed. I find another shot of the person where their eyes are open and do exactly the same thing. No one has ever complained.

I really love the detail in the feathers of the photo. A bright, sunny day meant I could shoot with a low ISO and still obtain a desirable shutter speed. The photo you see is a reduction of the whole original image - I should be able to produce a 24x30 inch print in stunning detail. I have to say, I love birds. They are so very interesting and beautiful in just so many ways.

Thanks for reading.     Ericspix     Eric Svendsen

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