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Eurasian Wigeon
jmorlan

Eurasian Wigeon (Mareca penelope)

Adult male in front; female in back. Female Eurasian Wigeons are reported to be polymorphic with some individuals having a gray morph in which the head color resembles that of the similar American Wigeon. We spent some time scanning through Eurasian Wigeons looking for Americans, finding only one obvious male. Not only did we fail to find any female American Wigeons, we also failed to find any gray morph female Eurasians. This gray morph seems to be extremely rare in Japan if it exists at all. The three wigeon species, the Gadwall and the Falcated Duck have recently been moved from the genus Anas to Mareca. This change was prompted by a genetic study by Gonzlez et al. (2009) who found that the genus Anas was otherwise polyphyletic.
Location
Kamisu--Lake Gonoike / Gonoike Greenbelt Park, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan.
Date taken
13 February 2019
Scientific name
Mareca penelope
Equipment used
Canon PowerShot SX60 HS
Staff member
Opus Editor
Supporter
That's a lovely picture you've got of this pair Joe.... you've got closer to them than I have this year so far.

Excellent work here my friend. Very well done.
 

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Category
Asia, Australia & Pacific Islands
Added by
jmorlan
Date added
View count
18
Comment count
5

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