Widgeon (redirected from widgeons)

wigeon

 or widgeon

Any of four species of dabbling ducks, popular game and food birds. The male European wigeon (Anas penelope) has a reddish head, cream forehead, and gray back. The male American wigeon, or baldpate (A. americana), has a white crown, green eye stripe, and brown back. Baldpates often graze on young grasses. The Cape wigeon (A. capensis) of Africa is a nocturnal feeder.

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wigeon, widgeon

1. a Eurasian duck, Anas penelope, of marshes, swamps, etc., the male of which has a reddish-brown head and chest and grey and white back and wings

2. American wigeon a similar bird, Anas americana, of North America, the male of which has a white crown

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Widgeon 

(Anas penelope), a bird of the family Anatidae. The widgeon is about 55 cm long and usually weighs from 650 to 800 g, sometimes as much as 1 kg. It is widely distributed in Europe and Asia, primarily in the forest zone, more rarely in the tundra zone; it also nests along the steppe lakes of Kazakhstan, in the Crimea, and in Transcaucasia. It feeds mainly on the green parts of plants and on rhizomes. The widgeon is considered a game bird.