Hello all,
The American Wigeon is indeed an amazingly variable creature. The mystery
of these cream-headed individuals is often brought up, no doubt because it
hasn't been illustrating in the popular field guides.

Mike Donahue is right, they aren't uncommon. Roughly 1 in 30 AMWI that I
see has an "aberrant" amount of buff or cream flecking in the cheeks, some
of them showing an excessive amount. I don't see this as a mark indicating
possible Eurasian ancestry at all.

That's not to say that Eurasian x American Wigeon hybrids are at all rare.
They're definitely out there, and it seems to me hybrids may be on the
increase locally.

Good luck birding,
Charlie Wright
Sumner WA