American Wigeon

The American Wigeon is a medium-sized dabbling duck with a distinctively round head and short, blue-gray bill tipped in black. The breeding drake shows a creamy-white crown patch (giving rise to the old nickname "baldpate") set against a grayish head speckled with black, a glossy green swath extending back from the eye, and a rich pinkish-brown body.

Females are more subdued, with a grayish head and warm brownish body, but share the male's compact shape and short bill. In flight, both sexes show a large white patch on the forewing, particularly bold and conspicuous on the male.

Key Field Marks

• Round head with a short, pale blue-gray bill tipped black
• Breeding drake: creamy-white crown, iridescent green eye patch, pinkish-brown body
• Female: gray head, warm brown body, same compact shape
• Large white shoulder patch visible in flight (especially bold on males)

Similar Species

The Eurasian Wigeon drake has a solid rufous (rather than gray-speckled) head and a buffy (rather than white) crown; female Eurasian Wigeons are warmer/more rufous-toned than female American Wigeons, which tend to be grayer-headed. Gadwall lack the round head shape and white crown/eye patch of wigeon.

American Wigeon breed across the prairies, parklands, and boreal wetlands of northern and western North America, favoring marshes, ponds, and lake edges with abundant aquatic and shoreline vegetation. They are migratory, wintering widely across the southern United States, Mexico, and Central America in marshes, flooded fields, reservoirs, and coastal bays and estuaries.

In winter, wigeon often associate in large mixed flocks with other dabbling ducks and are notable for grazing on land alongside American Coots, sometimes even snatching vegetation coots bring up from underwater.

American Wigeon are more terrestrial grazers than many dabbling ducks, often seen grazing on short grass and aquatic vegetation along shorelines and in fields, in addition to typical dabbling and tipping-up behavior on the water. They will opportunistically pirate food brought to the surface by diving birds such as coots.

The male's call is a distinctive, whistled "whee-whee-whew," quite different from the low quacks of most dabbling ducks, and often the easiest way to detect the species from a distance. Nests are built on the ground in grass or shrub cover, sometimes well away from water, with females incubating 6-12 eggs alone.