How to Identify a Cinnamon Teal (Spatula cyanoptera)

• Body pattern: Male: cinnamon-red head, neck, and underparts in breeding plumage, described as unmistakable
• Eye color: Male: scarlet-red iris, which separates adult males from females and from Blue-winged Teal
• Bill: Male and Female: slightly larger, longer bill than Blue-winged Teal, better developed for straining food from the water
• Body pattern: Female: very much like female Blue-winged Teal, with a plainer, browner face; nearly impossible to reliably separate in the field
• Wing patch (speculum): Male and Female: powder blue wing patch shared with Blue-winged Teal; male's anterior white border is bolder while female's border shows more brown

Female Cinnamon Teal is nearly identical to female Blue-winged Teal and cannot be reliably separated in the field except by subtle bill length/shape and wing-covert color; males are told apart by the Cinnamon Teal's scarlet-red iris The Blue-winged Teal page lists its own marks.

Marshes and fresh ponds; favors fresh or alkaline shallow lakes and extensive marshes, generally avoiding coastal salt marshes Strictly western North American distribution: Alaska, California, Great Lakes fringe, Northwest, Plains, Rocky Mountains, Southwest, and Texas

Shoot from water level if you can, with the sun behind you, so head pattern and the wing patch show their true colors. Get one frame with the bird side-on and one as it stretches or flaps, which exposes the speculum and belly. Note who it is swimming with; ducks flock by species. The app names the likely species; confirm with the marks above, and check the female separately, since females of many ducks look alike.