January 19, 2026John FloresNewsletters,Outdoor Updates,Teal
Banded blue-winged teal on record as over 20 years old
Houma’s Jake Pierron was having a great time hunting ducks with his daughter and his cousin, Brennan Sevin, in the marsh southwest of Theriot on opening day of the second split of the west zone waterfowl season. Pierron and his daughter shot three teal early. In another blind some 400 yards away, Pierron’s cousin hadn’t fared as well.
With quite a few birds flying, Pierron called up his cousin to see if he wanted to come hunt with him and his daughter in their blind. So, Pierron drove over to Sevin’s blind and picked him up.
During the morning’s action, Pierron sent his retriever to pick up a couple of the birds. Just about the moment his dog got into his assigned place in the blind, two “big ducks” started to work. Pierron and his daughter quickly got down and his dog dropped one of the birds outside the blind during the commotion.
Just before climbing into the blind, Pierron asked his cousin if he minded picking up the duck the dog dropped. And that’s when things really got exciting.
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“Man! It’s got a band on it!” Sevin said.
Reporting the band
In the exchange, Pierron initially thought his cousin was joking with him.
When his cousin insisted saying, “No! I’m telling you the truth,” is when he finally believed him.
However, this wasn’t just any band. When Pierron started examining it, he found it to be severely worn. Holding the leg of the bird up in the sunlight to look at the information inscribed on the band, he was just barely able to make out the numbers 0995-27672. What’s more, upon reporting it to the U.S. Geological Survey Bird Banding Laboratory, that’s when things began to take another turn.
Pierron received a reply that said, “Warning! Potential problems were detected with this report: This bird or band is unusually old. Please recheck your data, correct it if needed, and include any important remarks in the comments field. IF NO CHANGES ARE NEEDED PRESS CONTINUE.”
The band numbers checked out and upon pressing continue, Pierron received a reply stating the species, the date banded, banding location, age, and sex. Only, not in the customary “Certificate of Appreciation” form with bander information that corresponds with the band number. Additionally, the file information was inaccurate.
Pierron’s blue-winged teal was listed as being a female. From the beautiful iridescent dark blue head with its pure white crescent moon shaped cheek patch, there was no doubt it was a male in full mating plumage.
How could there be a mistake? Why would the unofficial information read female instead of male? And why didn’t the banding information come with an official certificate from the USGS Bird Banding Lab?
What really stood out was if the bird was actually the bird banded, it was really old; maybe one of the oldest on record at 20 years and 3 months.
Discovering the bird’s history
Lauren Walker, a troubleshooter for the Bird Banding Lab, was contacted to see if she could help. It took a couple of weeks and a follow-up phone call to get a reply, but Walker was able to obtain the field notes from the banders.
The blue-winged teal was captured by spotlight and banded near Amherst Point, Nova Scotia, Canada, Sept. 14, 2005. Walker went on to say it is not unusual for the sex to be mistaken on hatch year birds.
Walker corrected the data base with the bird’s sex and date harvested and issued Pierron a USGS Certificate.
“I have looked at all of our blue-winged teal records and found 13 that would be older than this individual,” Walker said. “These 13 birds include nine males and four females so, if you break it down by sex, Jake’s bird would be the 10th oldest male blue-winged teal we have documented in our database. The current blue-winged longevity record is held by a male that was at least 23.25 years, when it was harvested in 2005.”
In putting the age of Pierron’s bird into perspective, according to Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge Research Program Manager Paul Link, female blue-winged teal have a first-year survival rate of 46-48 percent, and males only slightly higher.
If harvesting the 10th oldest male blue-winged teal on record and No. 14 overall wasn’t enough, two weeks to the day later Pierron harvested another rare bird out of the same blind. He shot a hybrid blue-winged teal/cinnamon teal cross.
Pierron said both birds have since been taken to the taxidermist.
Exposing the Big Game 