American Wigeon, Mareca americana

American Wigeon, Mareca americana, Female. Photograph taken in the San José del Cabo Rió Lagoon, Baja California Sur, February 2016. Photograph courtesy of Carol Snow, Del Mar, California.

American Wigeon, Mareca americana, Female. Photograph taken in the coastal area of Yavaros, Sonora, January 2020. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

American Wigeon, Mareca americana. Photograph taken within a residential community in Alamos, Sonora, March 2019. Photograph and  identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

American Wigeon, Mareca americana, Male. Photograph taken in the coastal area of Yavaros, Sonora, January 2020. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

The American Wigeon, Mareca americana, is a member of the Anatidae Family of Ducks, Geese and Waterfowl. They are mid-sized in stature. In Mexico they are winter visitors and found in all parts of the country except around the Yucatán Peninsula and in the State of Chiapas.

 

From a conservation perspective, the American Widgeon is categorized by the IUCN as Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. They inhabit saltwater bays, freshwater estuaries, lakes, marshes, and rivers including brackish wetlands and tidal flats. They consume aquatic plants and grasses, a wide and diverse collection of seeds, and planktonic algae.