Eurasian Wigeon
Mareca penelope

Conservation status | Numbers reported wintering in North America (mainly in west) have increased in recent decades, reflecting better coverage or actual population increase. Possibly breeding at some undiscovered site on this continent. |
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Family | Ducks and Geese |
Habitat | Marshes, lakes, bays, fields. In winter in North America often on marshy ponds with open ground nearby, or in flooded fields; also on shallow coastal estuaries and sheltered bays. Presence of American Wigeon is best key to good habitat for Eurasian Wigeon. |
Photo Gallery
Feeding Behavior
Forages by grazing on land, by dabbling at surface of water, sometimes by submerging head and neck. May steal food brought to surface by other species such as coots or geese. May feed by day or night.
Eggs
8-9, sometimes 6-12. Whitish to pale buff. Incubation is by female only, 24-25 days. Young: leave nest and go to water shortly after hatching. Young are tended by female but find all their own food. Age at first flight 40-45 days.
Young
Leave nest and go to water shortly after hatching. Young are tended by female but find all their own food. Age at first flight 40-45 days.
Diet
Almost entirely plant material. Diet in North America not well known; in Europe, eats wide variety of leaves, stems, roots, seeds. Eats some insects in summer.
Nesting
Known to breed only in Old World, but likely to be found nesting in North America eventually. Several males may compete with each other in courting one female, jostling for position. Displays of male include lifting tips of folded wings to expose white wing patch, raising head while giving whistled call, lowering bill to display buffy crown patch to female. Nest site is on ground under dense vegetation, usually near water. Nest is shallow depression lined with grass and with large amount of down.
Illustration © David Allen Sibley.
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Text © Kenn Kaufman, adapted from
Lives of North American Birds
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Migration
Reaches North America from both east and west. Birds banded in Iceland have been recovered in eastern Canada. Regular in migration in western and southern Alaska. Birds wintering in Pacific lowlands from British Columbia to California probably come from eastern Siberia.
See a fully interactive migration map for over 450 bird species on the Bird Migration Explorer.
Learn moreSongs and Calls
Piping 2-note whistle, seldom heard in America.Learn more about this sound collection.
How Climate Change Will Reshape the Range of the Eurasian Wigeon
Audubon’s scientists have used 140 million bird observations and sophisticated climate models to project how climate change will affect this bird’s range in the future.
Zoom in to see how this species’s current range will shift, expand, and contract under increased global temperatures.
Climate threats facing the Eurasian Wigeon
Choose a temperature scenario below to see which threats will affect this species as warming increases. The same climate change-driven threats that put birds at risk will affect other wildlife and people, too.