Subject: Eurasian Wigeon & possible AMWIxEUWI at Green Lake
Date: Dec 24 11:21:32 2003
From: Greg Toffic - Greg.Toffic at Zoo.org


Michael and David,
I've seen what I have considered American wigeon X Eurasian wigeon (males) at Green Lake regularly in the past few years. I saw one there last week that sounds like the bird that David saw. In addition to the head pattern David described, it had flank plumage that was intermediate between the species, grey (or is it gray) with a wash of reddish. Maybe at lunch time I'll go there and try to get a closer look. I'm intrigued by Michael's reference to the British Birds paper on variation in American wigeon, and the comment that "This variation in American Wigeon is not that uncommon here in Washington" Michael, are you suggesting that these not-uncommon intermediate birds are less likely hybrids, but rather American wigeons with Eurasian-like features?
Greg Toffic


-----Original Message-----
From: mgd at u.washington.edu [mailto:mgd at u.washington.edu]
Sent: 24 December, 2003 10:26 AM
To: David White
Cc: tweeters
Subject: Re: Eurasian Wigeon & possible AMWIxEUWI at Green Lake


Dave,

This variation in American Wigeon is not that uncommon here in Washington. If you look through large flocks of them, you're bound to pick one up. This variation is not well-documented in the literature. There was an article in British Birds about a year ago.

Mike Donahue
Seattle



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