Please click on the image to see more species accounts.
Please click on the image to see more species accounts.
Eurasian Wigeon
CANARD SIFFLEUR
Anas penelope Linnaeus
Occasional visitor.
The Eurasian Wigeon is almost
identical in size, silhouette, voice, and habits to the American Wigeon, but
the breeding male has strikingly different coloration: a rich rufous head with
creamy buff crown and pale gray flanks. In other plumages, these two species
are difficult to separate.1 It is therefore not surprising that
nearly all Manitoba records of Eurasian Wigeon involve males in spring, often
associating with groups of American Wigeon. The Eurasian species is not known
to breed regularly in North America, although wintering hybrid American x
Eurasian Wigeon are frequently observed in California.2,3
A 1944 review summarized 520
North American records of this species: 274 from the Atlantic coast, 81 from
the Pacific coast, and 165 from the interior.4 These included just
one Manitoba record, a bird collected by Frank Russell near Grand Rapids on 1
September (1898 or earlier). Cooch convincingly described a male near Hartney
on 3 June 1949.5 Many more sightings have accumulated since then,
and there are now well over 20 records for Manitoba. Four sightings were at
Churchill, and the remainder were scattered across the south from Hartney and
Killarney in the west, to Camper and the Oak Hammock Marsh area (three times)
in the Interlake region, and Patricia Beach and Lac du Bonnet in the east. Most
were seen between April and mid-June, and there have been only two fall
reports. A most obliging bird frequented the Fort Whyte Nature Centre in
Winnipeg for much of May 1994; a similar visit from late April into May 1995
may well have involved the same individual. The pattern of occurrence at
Churchill is noteworthy, with three observations by Eva Beckett between 1944
and 1954, but only one further sighting during the birding boom of the last two
decades—a well-described male on 14 June 1983.6,7
1 Mactavish 1994; 2 Hubbard
1971; 3 Sibley 1994; 4 Hasbrouck 1944; 5 Cooch
1950; 6 Jehl, in preparation; 7 Ryff &
Johnston 1983.
G.E. Holland, R.F. Koes
Please click on the image to return to the Home Page.