Eurasian Wigeon

Status Rare vagrant. Downs (1888) stated merely that it was "rare," but Piers (1915) discounted this vague reference and concluded that a bird on 9 January 1912, near Yarmouth, was a first record. Another dozen were taken or observed prior to 1970. These included a bird shot on Cape Sable Island, in early December 1926, wearing a leg-band put on the bird in Iceland on 2 July of the same year (Lloyd 1927). Since 1970 there have been some 21 records of 27 birds (maximum of three at the Amherst Point Bird Sanctuary, 25 April to 8 May 1982). By county, 15 birds have occurred in Colchester (all near Amherst), 9 in Halifax, 5 in Cape Breton, 4 in Yarmouth, 3 in Cumberland, 2 in Kings and 1 in Shelburne. By month of first appearance, there have been 10 in April, 8 in November, 5 in May, 4 in October, 3 each in December and January, 2 in February and September, and 1 each in March and June. Most unusual was a drake seen in Lusby Marsh, Colchester County, between 29 June and 12 July 1975 (C. Desplanque, D.W. Finch).

Remarks This medium-sized duck resembles the American Wigeon. The drake of the Eurasian Wigeon, however, has a bright cinnamon-brown head with a creamy buff crown, while that of the male American Wigeon has a conspicuous green facial patch and a white crown. The underwing surfaces of both male and female Eurasian Wigeon are ashy brown, mottled with dark gray, but those of the American bird in both sexes are white with little or no mottling. These are distinctive characteristics more useful for identification with the birds in the hand than in the field.

It has long been presumed that these travellers reaching Nova Scotia come from Iceland, and the recovery of a band from the leg of one of them tends to confirm this theory.