Wigeon (gobirding.eu)

Wigeon (Eurasian Wigeon) Anas penelope

An abundant winter visitor to the marshes of Norfolk and elsewhere. Over 22,000 were counted at a single site in east Norfolk in December 2005. Almost all of them depart in the spring and only a very small handful stay here for the summer.






male and female Wigeons, Buckenham (Norfolk, UK), 25th January 2004

Wigeon, Titchwell (Norfolk, UK), 5th November 2011

first-winter male Wigeon, Horsey (Norfolk, UK), 17th December 2011


male and female Wigeons, Caerlaverock (Dumfries & Galloway, UK), 29th December 2011


Wigeons, Cley (Norfolk, UK), 13th October 2007


male and female Wigeons, Caerlaverock (Dumfries & Galloway, UK), 29th December 2005

Wigeon, Titchwell (Norfolk, UK), 5th November 2011	male Wigeon, Caerlaverock (Dumfries & Galloway, UK), 30th December 2003


male Wigeons, Cley (Norfolk, UK), 3rd February 2007

female Wigeons, Cley (Norfolk, UK), 3rd February 2007

first-winter male Wigeon, Burnham Overy Marsh (Norfolk, UK), 31st January 2009

male Wigeon, Brancaster Staithe (Norfolk, UK), 28th October 2008









Wigeons, Buckenham (Norfolk, UK), 1st January 2010


Wigeons, Burnham Norton (Norfolk, UK), 13th March 2010

male Wigeon, Titchwell (Norfolk, UK), 15th March 2004

male Wigeon, Lochmaben (Dumfries & Galloway, UK), 29th December 2003	male Wigeon, Loch Ryan (Dumfries & Galloway, UK), 28th December 2005

female and male Wigeons, Cley (Norfolk, UK), 7th November 2003

female and male Wigeons, Salthouse (Norfolk, UK), 16th February 2008


male and female Wigeons, Titchwell (Norfolk, UK), 9th February 2008



Wigeons (with 2 Pintail, 4th & 5th from right), Sheringham (Norfolk, UK), 10th October 2009

female Wigeon, Titchwell (Norfolk, UK), 27th February 2003	male Wigeon, Titchwell (Norfolk, UK), 22nd March 2004

male Wigeon, Salthouse (Norfolk, UK), 3rd February 2007	female Wigeon, Cley (Norfolk, UK), 3rd February 2007

male Wigeon, Snettisham (Norfolk, UK), 31st March 2009	male Wigeon, Brancaster Staithe (Norfolk, UK), 15th February 2006

male Wigeons, Pentney (Norfolk, UK), 18th November 2006

Wigeon, Pentney (Norfolk, UK), 31st March 2009

female Wigeon, Swanton Morley (Norfolk, UK), 6th February 2010

Wigeons, Swanton Morley (Norfolk, UK), 20th September 2008

Wigeon, Brancaster Staithe (Norfolk, UK), 6th November 2007

Wigeons, Brancaster Staithe (Norfolk, UK), 1st December 2010

Wigeon, Titchwell (Norfolk, UK), 23rd October 2009	Wigeon, Cley (Norfolk, UK), 10th September 2005

male Wigeon, Tayport (Tayside, UK), 27th December 2010

Wigeons, Hayle (Cornwall, UK), 19th October 2010

Wigeons, Blakeney (Norfolk, UK), 4th December 2010	Wigeons, Holkham (Norfolk, UK), 2nd March 2011 - notice how this individual shows pink running into the foreflanks

male Wigeon, Caerlaverock (Dumfries & Galloway, UK), 29th December 2005

Aberrant Wigeons

Below are three Wigeons that showed white patches behind the eye and another generally pale bird.


female Wigeon with white patch behind eye, Buckenham (Norfolk, UK), 25th January 2004	female Wigeon with white patch behind eye, Caerlaverock (Dumfries & Galloway, UK), 29th December 2005

male Wigeon with white patch behind eye, Buckenham (Norfolk, UK), 25th January 2004

leucistic Wigeon, Minsmere (Suffolk, UK), 10th September 2011

Occasionally birds appear that have not only a small patch of green behind the eye, as some of the above do, but a long broad band of green running back from the eye, recalling American Wigeon. it is not entirely clear whether this is simply an extreme of the variation shown by pure Eurasian Wigeon, or if it's a result of hybridisation with American Wigeon (or perhaps another species) some generations back. First generation hybrids are variable but can be expected to show more clues to a hybrid origin than these birds (such as pink bleeding into the grey body, speckled lores/ear-coverts, etc.) - these clearly are not first-generation hybrids, but perhaps the possibility of them, or some of them, being backcrossed hybrids is not completely eliminated.

Usually the extent of the green head band is the only atypical feature, and for this reason, along with the fact that many pure Eurasian Wigeons show a little green behind the eye, most commentators favour the view that this is simply variation within pure Eurasian Wigeon - or perhaps genes that are present in all Wigeons but normally dormant, expressed in just a very few. A presumed Gadwall x (Eurasian) Wigeon showed a hint of green behind the eye, extending far enough back (albeit indistinctly) to recall these birds. The genes causing the green head band to appear were presumably passed down from the Wigeon parent so this lends support to the idea that they are present but normally dormant in all Wigeons.

On the other hand, apparently green-banded Wigeons are more frequently recorded among Asian populations of Wigeon where vagrant American Wigeons are rather less rare than they are in Europe. That might lend some support to the idea that the green band is generated as a result of gene flow between American and Eurasian Wigeons.

Thanks to those who have commented about these - any further comments would be very welcome!



Wigeon with green head band, Pentney (Norfolk, UK), 31st March 2009

Wigeon with green head band, Burnham Norton (Norfolk, UK), 10th March 2010



Wigeon with green head band, Burnham Norton (Norfolk, UK), 13th March 2010 - one of two similar birds, differing from the one above (same site, three days earlier) in lacking the dark flank feathers (though it is perhaps possible that these were moulted between the photos)

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