American Wigeon (Anas americana)
by Wanda Gorsuch

Common Names: Baldpate, gray duck

It isn’t surprising wigeon are nicknamed ‘baldpate’ as the males have a white stripe from the forehead to the middle of the top of their head, resembling a receding hairline.  They have one of the most erratic flight patterns out of all the dabbling ducks, except for teal.

Identification

A mid-sized dabbling duck, adult males weigh in at an average of 720 – 1330g while adult females average 665 – 1275g.

Drakes have a white stripe that extends from the forehead to the middle of the crown while a dark green patch surrounds the eye and travels to the nape.  Bill is bluish grey with a black tip.  The rest of the head and upper neck are heavily speckled with black.  Breast, sides and flanks are a pinkish brown.  Belly and sides of rump are white.  In flight, a white shoulder patch is distinct.  Speculum is iridescent green with a black border. 

Hens have a brownish black crown displaying creamy white streaks.  The rest of the head and upper neck are whitish with streaking.  Back is grayish brown and sides and flanks are a pale reddish brown.  Belly is white.  The white shoulder patch is poorly defined and the speculum appears mostly black with only a bit of green.

Distribution

In breeding season, American wigeon are found from the Bering Sea to the Hudson Bay and from the edge of the tundra south to the southern prairies.  Most wigeon are found in western Canadian Prairie-Parklands, Mackenzie Delta and the Old Crow Flats (Yukon and Northwest Territories).

Winter finds the highest densities of wigeon in the Pacific Northwest, through the central valleys of California, Atlantic coast (south of Massachusetts), southern Louisiana as well as the southern high plains of Texas to New Mexico.

Habitat

Wigeon like to spend the breeding season near shallow, freshwater wetlands such as sloughs, ponds, small lakes, marshes and rivers.  They like nesting in areas with brush/grass cover near water.

In winter, wigeon can be found on freshwater marshes, rivers, lakes, impoundments, estuaries, saltwater bays and agricultural fields.  Highest densities inhabit lacustrine and intertidal areas that have lots of submerged and emergent vegetation beside agricultural land.

Food

American wigeon tend towards being vegetarians, but increase their protein intake during breeding season.  In breeding season they concentrate on seeds, fruits and nonplant foods such as dragonflies, damselflies, beetles, midges, horseflies, and caddisflies.  During the winter months, wigeon mainly eat aquatic vegetation, leaf parts of upland grasses and covers and leafy parts and seeds of a variety of agricultural crops.

Reproduction

Pair bonds start forming before wigeon reach their wintering grounds, and continues through the winter. 

Among dabbling ducks, wigeon tend to be late nesters.  Nest initiation starts around mid to late May.  Nests are located on dry land, usually far from water and in dense cover such as tall grass or low shrubs.  Initially, nests start as a simple structure with little cover.  As laying starts and continues, the hen will add more nest material and down to the nest.

Average clutch size is 3 – 12 eggs, with one egg laid a day.  Only the hen incubates, and the amount of time she spends on the nest increases as more eggs are laid.  Total incubation time from the time the last egg is layed is about 22 – 25 days.  Hens spend about 87% of their day incubating, taking an average of 2 recesses a day for about a total of 3 hours.

No information is available on the hatching process.  Ducklings are able to walk and feed themselves from the time of hatch.  The hen takes the ducklings from the nest and leads them to water within 24 hours of hatching.

Conservation and Management

Populations rose in the mid-nineties, probably due to unusually wet conditions that increased nesting habitat.  As of 2004, the American wigeon population in the Canadian prairies still showed a declining trend in the short, medium and long term.  The Canadian prairie population at 248,100 birds is far below the North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP) goal of 1.6 million.

Sources of Information

Bellrose, F.C.  1976.  Ducks, geese and swans of North America, 2^nd edition. Stackpole Books, Pennsylvania.

Johnsgard, P.A.  1978.  Ducks, geese, and swans of the world. University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska.

Mowbray.  1999.  American Wigeon (Anas americana). In The Birds of North America, No. 401 (A. Poole and F. Gill, Eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, D.C.: The American Ornithologists’ Union.