- Mareca penelope
Identification
By most left in genus Anas.
Eurasian Wigeon Anas penelope RANGE A common summer visitor to the north of the Palearctic Region breeding in Iceland and northern Britain, throughout most of Scandinavia except southern Sweden and across northern Russia to the Pacific. More scattered populations breed in Poland and the Baltic States and occasionally small numbers breed south of main range in southern Britain and eastern Europe. Present in breeding range April-September, widespread in winter and found along many coastlines from Iceland, the British Isles and Denmark south to the North African coast. Also around the Black and Caspian Seas and in southern Iraq and east wards across temperate Asia. Small numbers occur in sub-Saharan Africa and Arabia Vagrants have been recorded on the Azores and Madeira, Boreo, Sulawesi and Hawaii. Regular in small numbers on both coasts of North America and a vcommon migrant through the Aleutians.
HABITAT Breeds in dense cover close to freshwater lakes and marshes in open and sometimes wooded areas. Highly gregarious in winter around estuaries and on coastal grassland. Grazes on pastures as well as feeding in shallow water and often associates with Brent Geese in estuaries and on coastal farmland.
