How to Identify aAmerican Wigeon
Mareca americana · 16.5–23.2 in (42–59 cm)
Male vs. female
Male
Gray face with a creamy-white crown and a broad iridescent green swipe back from the eye; pinkish-brown body.
Female
Warm brown with a plain grayish head and the same small blue-gray, black-tipped bill.
Male photo: Polinova / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Female photo: Polinova / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
Field marks
- Small blue-gray bill with a black tip
- Male’s white crown, giving the old name baldpate
- Round head and short neck
- Large white patch on the forewing in flight
Similar species
What it sounds like
A distinctive three-note whistled "whee-whee-whew" from the male, unlike any other duck.
Behaviour that gives it away
Grazes on land like a goose, and often waits beside diving ducks and coots to steal the plants they bring up.
Habitat & range
Marshes, lakes, flooded fields and golf-course ponds across North America.
When you'll see it
Depending on where in North America you are, it is a winter visitor and a passage migrant, seen mainly in spring and autumn.
What it eats
Aquatic plants and grasses, largely grazed rather than dabbled.
Did you know?
It regularly waits beside diving coots and ducks and snatches the vegetation they haul to the surface.
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