American Wigeon

About the American Wigeon

A dapper dabbling duck of ponds and marshes, the male American Wigeon is warm gray-brown with a bold white crown - earning the old nickname baldpate - and a sweep of iridescent green back from the eye. In flight both sexes flash a large white patch on the forewing; the female is a plain warm brown. The short blue-gray bill is tipped in black.

Wigeon graze more than most ducks, grabbing grasses and leafy plants on land and water, and they are notorious thieves - lingering near diving ducks and coots to snatch vegetation the divers bring up. Their wheezy, whistled call is a giveaway on winter wetlands.

In Texas the American Wigeon is a common winter visitor, gathering in flocks on lakes, ponds, marshes, and flooded fields across the state from fall through early spring.

A note from behind the lens: winter flocks on a calm pond are approachable if you are patient and low. Work from a shoreline blind or a vehicle, wait for a drake to lift his head, and catch that white crown and green eye-mask in soft, low-angle light.