Eurasian Wigeon

Amber list

Mareca penelope

A neat, round-headed duck of estuaries whose whistling flocks are a sound of the British winter.

Dabbling duck · 280,000 breeding pairs (UK)

Measurements

In most ducks the male (drake) and female (hen) look quite different. Study both to identify any bird.

Photos: Charles J. Sharp · CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Grazes on grass and eel-grass; also takes seeds and aquatic plants.

Grazing (walks and feeds on land) Medium (mallard-sized, 45–55 cm)

Estuaries, saltmarsh, coastal fields and inland lakes in winter.

A scarce breeder in northern Scotland; most are winter visitors.

Tens of thousands arrive from Iceland and Russia each autumn.

The unmistakable male whistle "whee-oo", the signature sound of a winter estuary.

Compare with close relatives.

Anas platyrhynchos

The UK’s most familiar duck — the ancestor of nearly all domestic ducks and the benchmark every other species is measured against.

Mareca strepera

A quietly elegant grey duck whose subtlety hides a feisty habit of stealing food from coots.

Anas crecca

Our smallest duck — a dainty, fast-flying dabbler that gathers in busy, twittering flocks on marshes.

Spatula clypeata

A dabbling duck with an outsized spatula bill, built for filtering tiny food from the water.