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American Wigeon | Mareca americana
Amerikaanse smient | Silbón americano
The American Wigeon is a medium-sized dabbling duck with a short bill that grazes as much as it dabbles. In the guide area it is a winter visitor from North America: in northern Mexico and on the plateau one of the common wintering ducks, becoming scarcer to the south.
Voice
The male gives a high, whistled three-note whee-whee-wheew, also in flight; the female a hoarse, growling kwarr. Flocks are often heard before they are seen.
Recording: Valerie Heemstra — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
42–59 cm, with a rounded head, a short blue-grey bill with a black tip and a pointed tail. The male has a creamy-white crown, a broad glossy green band from the eye to the nape on a finely speckled grey head, pinkish-cinnamon breast and flanks, and a black rear end with a white patch in front of it. The female is warm orange-brown on the flanks, with a greyer head and a dark patch around the eye. In flight the male shows a large white patch on the forewing and a green speculum; the axillaries are bright white in both sexes. In autumn some males are still in eclipse plumage.
Confusion species
The male Eurasian Wigeon Mareca penelope, scarce in the guide area, has a chestnut head with a creamy-yellow blaze; the female has a warmer brown head and grey axillaries. The female Gadwall Mareca strepera has a thinner bill with orange sides and a white patch on the inner wing. Female Mallard Anas platyrhynchos and Mexican Duck Anas diazi are larger and have a long, orange or yellowish bill.
Habitat
Shallow fresh and brackish lakes, reservoirs, ponds, lagoons and marshes with open water, also saline lakes on the plateau, rice fields and sewage ponds. It feeds mainly on aquatic plants and grazes on wet grassland by the water. It also picks up plants brought to the surface by diving ducks and coots.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Winters throughout northern and central Mexico, with the largest numbers in Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango and Baja California, further in Sinaloa, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas and on the lakes of the central plateau from Jalisco and Michoacán to Puebla and Veracruz. Scarcer in southern Mexico and Central America, but known as far as Panama. Breeds in north-western North America, from Alaska to the prairies.
- Winter visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
On large, shallow lakes and reservoirs in northern Mexico, often together with Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler and teal. The whistling of the males gives a flock away before the birds come into view.
Conservation status
Not threatened globally. The North American population fluctuates with conditions on the breeding grounds. In Mexico the species is hunted, and the loss of wetlands reduces the number of suitable wintering sites.
Scientific name
Mareca americana | (Gmelin, 1789)
Gmelin described the species in 1789 as Anas americana; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Mareca was introduced in 1824 by Stephens. Mareca comes from the Portuguese marreco, a word for a small duck. americana is Latin for 'American', after the North American breeding range. The specimen the first description was based on came from Louisiana and New York.