Family: Anatidae, Ducks and Geese view all from this family

Description 18-20" (46-51 cm). Male has rusty head, buff crown, pinkish-buff breast, and gray body. Female is streaked gray-brown or rust-brown. Both sexes have large white shoulder patches and dull blue bills. Female American Wigeon is very similar to gray female Eurasian, but usually has grayer head.

Habitat Marshes, ponds, and lakes; tidal flats in nonbreeding season.

Nesting 7 or 8 cream-white eggs in a down-lined nest of grass, hidden in vegetation, often some distance from water.

Range Breeds in Eurasia; an uncommon but regular visitor to North America, mainly along Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

Voice Piping 2-note whistle, seldom heard in America.

Discussion The Eurasian Wigeon is usually found associating with flocks of its American counterpart. Like the American Wigeon, this species is unorthodox in its feeding habits: It spends much of its time grazing on land like a goose and also loiters around feeding flocks of diving ducks, snatching food from them when they bob back to the surface.