American
Wigeon, Anas americana
Male above, female below.
Above, a male showing purple-red iridescence in the eye patch, instead of the standard green. Among the large wintering flocks of American Wigeons, US birders look for and occasionally find vagrant individual Eurasian Wigeons, a related species normally confined to the old world. Note the different head coloring in the males of the two species, and the blend in the hybrid male shown on the Eurasian Wigeon page. Hybridization between the two species is not uncommon.
Pairs of wigeons, standing, above, and courting on the water, below.
As with other duck species, courtship begins in fall and continues through winter for American Wigeons, with males swimming in a group around a single female, often in a kind of flotilla formation. It can look peaceful and civilized, as above, where it looks as if the female has selected a mate, while the other males keep their distance and calmly accept the verdict. But the same group of wigeons produced the spectacle below, with three males in hot pursuit of the single female. In fact, duck courtship can get quite rough.
Two males and a female in flight above, and a single male, below.
