Eurasian Wigeon
Mareca penelope
Breeding males are beautiful and distinctive with rich reddish-brown head, buffy forehead, pearly gray body, and pinkish breast. Look for large white wing patches in flight. Females are plainer warm brown overall, with a small pale bill. Very difficult to distinguish from female American Wigeon; note warmer brown head on Eurasian with little contrast between head, breast, and sides. Also look for dirty grayish, not bright white, underwings in flight, but this can be difficult to judge, especially at a distance. Widespread and common in Eurasia, breeding at northern latitudes and wintering south to central Africa and Southeast Asia. Typically in flocks on lakes and wetlands, often grazing in nearby fields. Regular winter visitor to North America, especially on the west coast, usually in very small numbers among flocks of American Wigeon.
Identification
This dabbling duck is 42–52 cm (17–20 in) long with a 71–80 cm (28–31 in) wingspan, and a weight of 500–1,073 g (1.102–2.366 lb). The breeding male has grey flanks and back, with a black rear end, a dark green speculum and a brilliant white patch on upper wings, obvious in flight or at rest. It has a pink breast, white belly, and a chestnut head with a creamy crown. In non-breeding (eclipse) plumage, the drake looks more like the female. The female is light brown, with plumage much like a female American wigeon. It can be distinguished from most other ducks, apart from American wigeon, on shape. However, that species has a paler head and white axillaries on its underwing. The female can be a rufous morph with a redder head, and a gray morph with a more gray head.
Taxonomy
The Eurasian wigeon was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae under the binomial name Anas penelope. Anas is the Latin word for "duck", and penelope refers to a duck that was supposed to have rescued Penelope when she was thrown into the sea. Her name derives from Ancient Greek πήνη pene, "braid" and ὤψ ops "appearance", from the ruse she used to deter suitors while her husband Ulysses was absent.
- Scientific name
- Mareca penelope
- Authority
- (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Order
- Anseriformes
- Family
- Anatidae
- Genus
- Mareca
Range and habitat
It breeds in the northernmost areas of Europe and the Palearctic. It is the Old World counterpart of North America's American wigeon. It is strongly migratory and winters further south than its breeding range. It migrates to southern Asia and Africa. In Great Britain and Ireland, the Eurasian wigeon is common as a winter visitor, but scarce as a breeding bird in Scotland, the Lake District, the Pennines and occasionally further south, with only a handful of breeding pairs in Ireland. It can be found as an uncommon winter visitor in the United States on the mid-Atlantic and Pacific coasts. It is a rare visitor to the rest of the United States except for the Four Corners and the southern Appalachians.
- Breeding range
- PAL : n Eurasia
- Non-breeding range
- AF and n OR
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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