Winters from southern United States south to Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, and the West Indies. In winter, very rare in the southernmost interior and locally in the inner south coast. Nonbreeding The Blue-winged Teal occurs throughout the province and may be found almost anywhere near water from sea level to 2,200 m elevation. It frequents shallow water at the edge of emergent cover or along shorelines of marshes, ponds, flooded fields, ditches, lagoons, backwaters of large rivers, and estuaries. On the coast, sheltered bays, inlets and coves, and offshore islands are used.
Migration occurs mainly through the interior.
Flocks of males arrive first, followed by paired birds or flocks of mixed sexes with males predominating. Numbers in British Columbia fluctuate from year to year often depending on water conditions in other parts of their range. In June and July, small flocks of males and apparently nonbreeding pairs are reported throughout their range. Records from November through January are unusual anywhere in the province, but in mild winters a few sometimes remain on the inner south coast and in the Okanagan valley and the Kootenays. The Blue-winged Teal breeds on southeastern Vancouver Island, and in the Fraser Lowlands east through the southern and central interior, and in the northern interior from the Peace River west through the Boreal Forest to Atlin.