Hi everyone,

I'm basically a novice birder but I'm getting pretty confident at identifying ducks, if I do say so myself (they're my favorites!) and today while running at Green Lake I saw two Eurasian wigeons amid the flock of American wigeons that seems to enjoy spending most of the winter at Green Lake. Here's the thing though - today the flock was close enough to the shore that I could see the two Eurasian wigeons very close with the naked eye, and noticed that both (males) had a small iridescent green patch - barely noticeable - to the right of their eyes. I looked in my Sibley guide and saw that in the non-breeding plumage it appears that male Eurasian wigeons *might* have a tiny bit of green near their eyes, but it seemed like both these males were in breeding plumage. I'm guessing these guys will stick around for awhile as last winter I saw two Eurasian wigeons in the flock for at least a couple
of months. If anyone else sees them and can confirm whether or not they're hybrids, that'd be great!

Thanks,

Emily Stoll
Seattle, WA
stollea at u.washington.edu