Green-winged Teal - Eurasian Subspecies

This Eurasian form of Green-winged Teal (also referred to as a Common Teal) was seen on Coffee Lake just outside of Wilsonville, OR. The two are very similar in appearance with the most obvious difference being the Eurasian's lack of a vertical white stripe in the shoulder area and the addition of a thin white horizontal line on its side which is missing on the American variety. The Eurasian also has a more pronounced and continuous creamy line that circles the front of its cheek, just behind the bill and around the eye.
While fairly rare in North America it is not unusual to hear reports of their sighting here in the winter.
While still considered the same species, the AOU is still debating whether to separate them.

Green-winged Teal

While the bird blind at TRNWR gives you a chance to get some close, undisturbed pictures of waterfowl and other birds, they can still be a fair distance off for my 300mm lens. So whenever I rent either the 400mm or 600mm lens, I try to spend some time in the blind.
Such was the case this past Saturday morning. The water level was back up and while the bird diversity wasn't as good as I've experienced, there were plenty of Green-winged Teal. I took quite a few shots and posted some of the better ones above. These are very pretty ducks and I realized when comparing them to a few Mallards that swam through that they are also rather small.
Other birds seen were Mallards, Gadwalls and American Coot in the main pond and Northern Shovelers and Northern Pintails off in the side pond. I also got a few nice shots of a Nutria.