WIGEON, common name for three species of freshwater ducks of the genus
Anas
(see DUCK). They differ in some respects from other members of Anas, and
were
formerly segregated as the genus Mareca. They feed upland more regularly
than
other ducks, and their short bills, blue-gray with a black tip, have serrated
edges
that facilitate grazing. Two species nest in the northern hemisphere; the
third nests
in southern South America and migrates toward the tropics for the winter.
In the two northern species, the males are brightly colored during the
courtship and
breeding seasons, but assume a more cryptic, femalelike "eclipse" plumage
in late
summer. In the Chiloe wigeon, A. sibilatrix, of South America, both sexes
are
brightly colored the year around; the head is metallic green, the face
white, the
breast scaled black and white, and the flanks rufous. As in all wigeons,
a large
white patch on the wings is revealed in flight. Males of the Eurasian wigeon,
A.
penelope, are about 46 cm (about 18 in) in length. The crown is golden-yellow,
the
head and neck are chestnut flecked with green, and the body is vermiculated
gray
above and white below. The duck breeds in northern and subarctic swamps,
and
winters in the lakes, rivers, and coastal waters of the North Temperate
Zone.
Males of the American wigeon, A. americana, also called baldpate, are similar
in
color, except that the crown is white and the head grayish, with a dark
green stripe
running from the eye to the nape. The species breeds in the northwestern
U.S.,
Canada, and Alaska, and winters from southern Canada to Central America.
The
bird builds its nest on dry ground in a slight depression that it lines
with grass,
weeds, and down.
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