Day 56: American Wigeon

Today, I'm going to tell you about a common duck, the American Wigeon. This medium sized dabbling duck breeds in Canada and the northern parts of the U.S. and can be found wintering farther south in the U.S., Mexico, and Central America.

The breeding male American Wigeon has a mask of green feathers around its eyes and a white cap running from the crown of its head to its bill. This white patch gives the bird its other common name, baldpate (pate is another word for head). The female American Wigeon has grey and brown plumage. Both sexes have a pale blue bill with a black tip.

We noticed some interesting behavior when observing American Wigeons. Because they are not great divers, they tend to gather with other species of ducks and will aggressively follow diving birds, grabbing food and vegetation away from them. For this reason, they are sometimes called "poacher" or "robber" ducks.

Last weekend, we saw another rare type of wigeon, the Eurasian Wigeon. I'll post more about that tomorrow.