Can someone explain the feathers of a blue wing teal to me. I’ve seen male teal, but the classic white area on the male head is either not present in September or there’s nothing but females around.
Do the feathers change in winter?

In September the drake and hen look alike. Its called eclipse plumage. Yes it starts to change later. I've killed a few that were starting to get some of the color in, in September.

I figured that’s what I had to be. I’ve seen drake woodies with summer plumage and drake mallards also. But I’ve also seen drake blue wings with the winter plumage in September so that’s why I was curious. Thanks for the info.

Those drake green wings in full plumage are a very pretty bird.

You can get lucky every now and then to get a full plumed male at the tail end of the season. More so in LA than here.

We killed a bunch in Texas

Yes, feather changes in winter. Have you ever seen a drake wood duck in august? You probably have, but didn’t realize you did.

The prettiest plumed ones are usually killed during turkey season

The best one I’ve seen during season were in the MS delta mid January during the warm winters of the 90s

I have, but you can still at least tell the difference between a drake and hen woodie. With teal, I can't tell any difference.

Son and I killed 4 on one of our farm ponds about 3 years ago during the early teal season . Was bad disappointed because of the lack of color on the drakes . So yes , they change later in the season as breeding gets closer .

Early season birds:




And here is a fine early January specimen:

Nice pictures!

Best ones I've ever seen were.

I’ve killed 1,000’s of those things and you won’t be able to start telling the diff until late Nov. they are real
Pretty in March when they come back thru.

I’ve heard that referred to as taxidermy season.