American Wigeon

About American Wigeon

The American Wigeon is a medium-sized dabbling duck with a compact body, short bluish-gray bill, and pointed tail. Breeding males have a broad white crown, a green patch sweeping behind each eye, and a gray body with contrasting black rear; females are warm brown with a grayish head and subtler facial pattern. Both sexes show pale forewings in flight. The male’s clear, whistled call is one of the easiest ways to locate a flock among other wintering waterfowl.

Wigeons use ponds, lakes, marshes, rivers, estuaries, bays, flooded fields, tidal flats, pastures, and grassy parks. They are more vegetarian than many dabbling ducks, grazing on land and nibbling or tipping up for leaves, stems, and seeds of aquatic and terrestrial plants. During the breeding season they add more insects, mollusks, and small crustaceans, especially when females need protein for egg production. Wintering birds often join mixed flocks and may take vegetation brought to the surface by diving ducks or coots.

Females nest on dry ground in tall grass or low shrubs, sometimes hundreds of feet from water. The nest is a shallow depression lined with grass, reeds, and down. A clutch can contain three to thirteen eggs, incubation lasts about twenty-two to twenty-eight days, and one brood is typical. Ducklings hatch covered in down and can leave the nest soon afterward, following the female to feeding habitat while they grow and develop flight feathers.

The American Wigeon is still common and is generally considered of relatively low conservation concern, though monitoring has documented long-term declines and reproduction varies with drought and wetland conditions. Loss or degradation of breeding and wintering wetlands remains an important pressure. In Hawaiʻi it is an uncommon nonbreeding visitor rather than a nesting species. The present Atlas record requires confirmation specifically for Kauaʻi, so local observations should be documented carefully and separated from the bird’s well-established continental life history.