Green-winged Teal (Large Ducks by AAA)

The Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca) is a small dabbling duck that occurs throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere. Historically, the American populations were classified as either a subspecies of the Eurasian teal (A. crecca carolinensis) or as a valid species (A. carolinensis), but now the American and Eurasian populations are lumped into one widespread species. The species breeds in the northern parts of its range, including Canada, Alaska, and extreme northern continental US in America and northern Eurasia, including Scandinavia and much of Russia, in the Palearctic, and then wintering in the southern portion of its range. Where I live here in Utah, they are common in lakes and rivers in the winter and early spring, sometimes gathering in the thousands. Today we will be looking at a Green-winged Teal produced by AAA. AAA has produced numerous figures over the years for various distributors, and information like the series or year of production are often lost to history. They produced at least two sets of waterfowl, one ‘Large’ and one ‘Small’, both containing eight species. Today’s teal is from the Large series, although the species was present in Small set as well. I don’t know when either set came out, but could have been as early as the 1980s or earlier. The other species in the Large series are American Black Duck, Blue-winged Teal, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead, Mallard, Canada Goose, and Wood Duck. After today I will be reviewing two others from the series, so stay tuned!

Several AAA figures are known to be mislabeled, and this duck is no exception. It’s labeled ‘Blue-winged Teal’ (and the actual Blue-winged Teal in the set is labeled ‘Loon’). The total raw length is about 8.0 cm. Calculating the scale on birds is inherently challenging. Using the bill as a metric (n=1.7 cm), the scale comes to about 1:2.1-1:2.4. And while that may seem small, A. crecca is a very small duck, usually the smallest duck in its areas (it’s the smallest in North America).

The duck is sculpted in a fairly neutral pose, as if resting on a mudflat or otherwise shallow water, or maybe resting on the shore adjacent to a body of water. The texture is better than expected, with individual feathers sculpted over much of the body.

The color, while stylized, has all the hallmark characteristics of a male Green-winged Teal, including a dark rufous-brown head with green eye stripes bordered in cream, a mottled breast, a white bar on the side of the body (which indicates this is the American population; the Eurasian teal lacks this white bar), and a prominent buffy tail streak. The wings are not completely closed on the body, revealing the characteristic green wing band. There is a red spot at the tip of the beak, but from what I can tell this is not a feature of this species.

This figure is a product of its age and doesn’t compare to the style 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. As hinted at in the opening paragraph, this is the first of three from this set I will be reviewing. Stay tuned next time for his blue-winged cousin!