American Wigeon

The American Wigeon or Baldpate, (Anas americana) is a species of wigeon in the dabbling duck genus Anas. It is a common and widespread duck which breeds in all but the extreme north of Canada and Alaska and also in the Interior West through Idaho, Colorado, the Dakotas, and Minnesota, as well as eastern Washington and Oregon. It is the New World counterpart of the Eurasian Wigeon.

The American 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. Wigeon also commonly feed on dry land, eating waste grain in harvested fields and grazing on pasture grasses, winter wheat, clover, and lettuce. Having a largely vegetarian diet, most wigeon migrate in the fall well before northern marshes begin to freeze.

Wigeon have an extensive breeding range stretching from the Western United States to the Arctic. The majority of the population breeds on wetlands in the Boreal Forest and subartic river deltas of Canada and Alaska.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Wigeon - 28.09.2011