Eurasian Wigeon

1/60s at f8.0, ISO:1250 Canon EOS-1D X w/800mm x 1.4 converter


The Eurasian Wigeon is a bird of open wetlands, such as wet grassland or marshes with some taller vegetation, and usually feeds by dabbling for plant food or grazing, which it does very readily. It nests on the ground, near water and under cover. It is highly gregarious outside of the breeding season and will form large flocks. They will join with flocks of the American Wigeon in the United States, and they also hybridize with them. This is a noisy species. The male has a clear whistle. It breeds in the northernmost areas of Europe and Asia. It is the Old World counterpart of North America\'s American Wigeon. It is strongly migratory and winters further south than its breeding range. It migrates to southern Asia and Africa. In Great Britain and Ireland the Eurasian Wigeon is common as a winter visitor, but scarce as a breeding bird in Scotland, the Lake District, the Pennines and occasionally further south, with only a handful of breeding pairs in Ireland. It can be found as an uncommon winter visitor in the United States on the mid-Atlantic and Pacific coasts. It is a rare visitor to the rest of the United States except for the Four Corners and the southern Appalachians
Iceland
 
05/28/2013