American Wigeons (Mareca americana) are medium-sized ducks with distinctive plumage. Males sport green eye stripes and white caps with the latter characteristic being the reason for their nickname ‘baldplate’.
They thrive in the wetlands of North America and are quite common but have a shockingly short lifespan. Here is all you need to know about them.
Identification
American Wigeons are medium-sized ducks with a round head, small bill, and a short neck. They measure 17-23 inches long with a 30–36-inch wingspan.
If they happen to float on the water and you can only see a silhouette, then a good tell is that they keep their heads pulled down which makes them look like they have no neck. Both males and females have a fairly short bill that is pale bluish with a black tip.
Male
Male American Wigeons have breeding and non-breeding plumage.
In their breeding plumage, they have buffy white heads with dense black speckling, a white cap, and a wide iridescent green eye stripe that extends from their eyes to the back of their heads. The specific hue of the eye stripe depends on the lighting and can even look bronze at times. Their backs, breasts, and flanks are dull reddish brown whereas their underbellies are white.
American Wigeon
If the bird is floating on the water, then you can see black undertail feathers contrasting with white patches on the sides of the rump. In flight, they have brownish wings with fairly large white patches above their green speculums. There’s also a variation known as the ‘storm wigeon’, referring to breeding males who have all-whitish heads and necks with the green eye stripe.
In their non-breeding plumage, males look more similar to females. They still have reddish-brown bodies, whitish bellies, and white wing patches, but also some significant differences. They don’t have a green eye stripe and a white cap anymore, but they have a dark ring around their eyes, making the head look darker.
Female
Female American Wigeons are much less flashy. They have warm brown bodies, grayish heads, a dark smudge around their eyes, and pale bellies. Their flanks have a slightly rusty tone to them. In flight, females have green speculum, but the patch above it is grayish with a white band in between, rather than fully white, and therefore not as conspicuous.
American wigeon female
Juvenile American Wigeons are similar to females with the only difference being that they do not have the white band between the gray wing patch and green speculum.
Vocalizations
You may identify American Wigeons by their calls before even seeing them as they are quite vocal year-round. Males call with a wheezy whew-whee-whew. The three-noted phrase is a descending nasal whistle.
Females give harsh chatters, growls, and quacks, some of which may remind a crow. They mostly vocalize during courtship and do not whistle like the males do.
Food
American Wigeons are herbivores for the most part, although their diet changes slightly depending on the season and their age. Juveniles, especially younger ones, prefer to eat insects, whereas adults mostly gravitate towards plant material.
However, during the breeding season, they include more aquatic invertebrates and other insects in their diet. This is especially true for females due to their need for extra protein for laying eggs.
The plant part of their diet includes stems, leafy parts, and seeds of both aquatic plants and grasses and agricultural plants and grains. This includes but is not limited to muskgrass, bushy pondweed, sedges, wild celery, cattail, duckweed, eelgrass, water milfoil, algae, clover, rice, barley, and wheat.
The animal part of their diet is made up of aquatic insects, beetles, mollusks, and crustaceans such as damselflies, midges, caddisflies, horseflies, and snails.
American Wigeons may feed both by day or night and generally in smaller groups unless they are migrating. On land, they use the tip of their bills to pluck seeds and plants from the ground. They mostly forage on the water.
In shallow water, they either dabble on the surface or submerge their head and neck to reach desired their desired food. However, they are highly opportunistic and may also be found in deeper waters stealing food brought to the surface by diving ducks and coots.
Nesting and Eggs
American Wigeons are monogamous for one breeding season with the males leaving the female around after the second week of incubation.
Pairs start forming on the wintering grounds, where males compete for females by putting on displays and fighting off other males. Courtship displays include males giving whistle-calls, head dipping and thrusting, tail wagging, lifting or shaking their wings, and shaking their bodies.
American Wigeons nest on the ground. Females select the nest site, which is usually near a food source, well concealed in tall grasses or low shrubs, and within 40-1,000 feet of water. The nest itself measures around 8 inches across. It is a small depression in the ground, lined with various grasses, stems, reeds, cattails, and down feathers.
Females have only one brood in a year with 3-12, on average 8-11 whitish eggs in a clutch. American Wigeon eggs measure 2-2.2 inches long and 1.5 inches wide. Incubation lasts for 22-28 days. Only the female incubates.
After hatching, the young leave the nest within 24 hours. The female leads them to the water, where they will have to feed themselves while the mother bird keeps watch over them. Females stay with their offspring almost up until fledging, which happens at around 45-63 days of age.
Current Situation
American Wigeons range throughout most of North and Central America and the northernmost South America. They breed in northern North America, including Alaska, most of Canada, and the northwestern United States.
Their wintering ground extends further south from the southern United States through Central America to northernmost South America. You can see them year-round in parts of the northwestern United States.
American Wigeon in flight
During the breeding season and summer, they prefer bodies of water that have suitable nearby concealed areas for nesting, including wetlands, marshes, rivers, lakes, and sometimes ponds.
Outside of the breeding season and migration, they can be found in places with abundant plant material, including bays, flooded fields, tidal flats, lakes, rivers, coastal estuaries, marshes, and also on deep lakes. You may also see them in parks, golf courses, and pastures in urban and suburban areas.
American Wigeon is listed as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List. However, their numbers are in decline, mostly due to weather, land use changes, and loss and degradation of wetland habitats.
Facts About American Wigeons
- The reproduction rate of American Wigeons depends on the availability of food and weather. Drought decreases their reproduction rate whereas in wet years it is usually higher.
- American Wigeons have a shockingly short average lifespan of 2-3 years in the wild. On the other hand, the oldest known wild individual on record lived to be at least 21 years and 4 months old.
- American Wigeons are also known as baldplates due to the breeding males’ white cap that resembles a bald man’s head.
Similar Species
Several duck species share similarities with the American Wigeon. Some of the most similar ones are the Eurasian Wigeon, Green-winged Teal, and Gadwall. Here is how to tell them apart.
Eurasian Wigeon
Eurasian Wigeons can be found wintering in a few spots in the United States. Breeding males have a gray body, a pinkish breast, a white belly, a black rump, a chestnut head, and a creamy crown stripe. Females are warm brown to gray-brown overall with a white belly.
Unlike Eurasian Wigeons, male American Wigeons have a green eye stripe, a grayish brown head instead of chestnut, a white crown instead of creamy, and reddish-brown bodies instead of gray. Females are more similar, but Eurasian Wigeons have warm brown heads instead of grayish ones.
Green-winged Teal
Green-winged Teals range throughout most of North and Central America and have a similar breeding, year-round, and wintering range to American Wigeons.
Males have chestnut heads with dark green eye streaks, gray bodies with a white vertical stripe from the shoulder to the waterline, pale undersides, and green speculums. Females are mottled brown and tan and have a dark cap and line through the eye.
Male Green-winged Teals have uniformly chestnut heads and necks, lacking the white cap of the male American Wigeon. They also have gray bodies with a white vertical stripe instead of reddish-brown bodies and a black instead of a pale bill.
Female American Wigeons have a pale bill with a black tip instead of a black one and lack the dark cap and stripe through their eyes that female Green-winged Teals have.
Gadwall
Gadwalls can be seen in most of North and Central America but are absent from the northernmost areas. Males have grayish bodies, black rumps, brownish heads, and black bills. Females are mottled brown and buff and orange-and-black bills.
Male Gadwalls are darker overall and lack the white cap and green eye stripe of male American Wigeons. Females are similar in plumage, but female Gadwalls have a dark-and-orange bill whereas female American Wigeons have a pale bill with a dark tip.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between American Wigeon and European Wigeon?
American Wigeons have reddish-brown bodies, grayish heads with a green eye stripe, and white caps whereas European Wigeons have chestnut heads and gray bodies with creamy caps.
Where do American Wigeons live?
In North America, American Wigeons live in freshwater and brackish wetland habitats, including marshes, ponds, lakes, rivers, estuaries, and coastal lagoons.
How big is an American Wigeon?
In North America, American Wigeons live in freshwater and brackish wetland habitats, including marshes, ponds, lakes, rivers, estuaries, and coastal lagoons.
What color are American Wigeon’s feet?
The feet of American Wigeons are blue-gray to dark gray.
