Hi Tweets,

Michael Kennedy writes, re 'cream-faced' male American Wigeon Anas americana:

>My question then - can anyone tell me if they have observed a similar
>bird, or if this bird might be representative of a regular colour
>variation for the species?

Michael, there is a long Tweeters thread on this a couple-three years ago
buried in the archives; sorry, I forget the name of the thread but try
'White-faced Wigeon'. If I remember correctly, the consensus was that this
is an uncommon to fairly common (2%-5% of total males) extreme of male
facial coloration, the other extreme being that dense fine dark grey
streaking on a paler grey ground fills in the loral, cheek and upper neck,
giving a dark grey look to the face.

Locally, a large (200+) flock of wigeon will contain anywhere from two to
five adult males with completely cream-white faces surrounding the dark
green eye-stripe, another ten or twenty will show significantly pale
faces--much as you describe on this bird--and most of the rest show
'conventional' plumage, wiith a few with faces with the grey streaking
significantly denser, hence showing darker faces than the norm.

>"Thanks" to all who take the time to read this.

You're "welcome". '-)

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Gesundheit.

Michael Price A brave world, Sir,
Vancouver BC Canada full of religion, knavery and change;
mprice at mindlink.net we shall shortly see better days.
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