Blue-winged Teal (Large Ducks by AAA)

Despite sharing the common name ‘teal’, the Blue-winged Teal (BWTE, Spatula discors) is not in the same genus (Anas) as the Green-winged Teal (GWTE) from my earlier review, although it was for a period. The genus Spatula, originally described in 1822 and eventually placed in synonymy with Anas, was resurrected in 2009 after a molecular phylogeny looking at two mitochondrial genes (cytochrome b and the NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2) determined Anas to be non-monophyletic. The BWTE is a small dabbling duck that occurs throughout much of North America, wintering along the California coast, the coastal Southeast, the Caribbean, and Mexico and Central America south to northern South America. Unlike the GWTE, the Blue-winged is rarer where I currently live in Utah. Today’s BWTE is from the same set as the aforementioned GWTE by AAA, and like its green-winged cousin, was featured on both the Large and Small duck collections.

Several AAA figures are known to be mislabeled, and this duck is no exception. It’s labeled ‘Loon’. Peculiar. Even if this was a case of confusion between the parties responsible for sculpt and paint, there is nothing in the sculpt to suggest this is a loon.

The bird is sculpted in a more active pose than the GWTE; its head is outstretched and its mouth is ever-so-slightly opening, as if it’s dabbling! This outstretched posture makes calculating a scale a little easier than the previous GWTE! The body length is approximately 10.0 cm for a scale of 1:4.

In nature, the BWTE has an intricate color pattern, something challenging to capture in a small model. Although I am not sure when this duck was first produced, as AAA has produced numerous figures over the years for various distributors, it would be considered ‘vintage’ today. As such, the paint job is rather stylized. However, despite this, there are several hallmarks of a breeding male BWTE, including a dark blue-grey head with a white crescent in front of the eye, a speckled breast, a patterned grey-green back, and a white hip-patch. The wings are sculpted as if not quite completely closed, exposing the pale blue coverts and green speculum separated by white, on the left side. Like the GWTE, this BWTE has a peculiar red spot at the tip of its bill that they lack in nature.

This figure is a product of its age and doesn’t compare to styles seen today. Still, the two AAA versions (this one and the Small version) are the only two examples of this species I am familiar with. So, for collectors who are interested in uncommon taxa or general species collectors, either of the two should be considered. These AAA ducks are not easy to come by, but pop up on eBay (where I bought mine original in the bag) and other second-hand sites. This is the second of three from this set I will be reviewing. Stay tuned for the last one.