Gadwall x Eurasian Wigeon

Gadwall x Eurasian Wigeon hybrid, Whitlingham Country Park (Norfolk, UK), 6th March 2011 - copyright Dave Appleton

(photo ID: 0309)

This drake hybrid seems to be fairly typical of this hybrid.  Note the green colour in the band behind the eye - pure Eurasian Wigeons may show a green head band (see here).

Gadwall x Eurasian Wigeon hybrid, Whitlingham Country Park (Norfolk, UK), 6th March 2011 - copyright Dave Appleton

(photo IDs: 0310-0312)

This female was at a site popular with birds released for shooting, many of which are Wigeon, Gadwall and Pintail.  It appeared to be paired to a drake Pintail and this pairing may have been responsible for a bird at the same site that showed characteristics consistent with a (Wigeon x Gadwall) x Pintail trigen (see here).

Gadwall x Eurasian Wigeon hybrid (probably released), Leathes Ham, Lowestoft (Suffolk, UK) , 11th February 2012 - copyright Dave Appleton

(photo IDs: 0313-0323)

Previously there had been two similar birds present at this site:

Gadwall x Eurasian Wigeon hybrids (probably released; with Northern Pintails), Leathes Ham, Lowestoft (Suffolk, UK), date uncertain - copyright Andrew Easton

(photo IDs: 2053-2056)

Andy had also photographed a rather different-looking bird with much more black on the bill, though the base colour was still the surprising pink colour that is shown by the birds above.

Gadwall x Eurasian Wigeon hybrid (probably released; with Gadwall), Leathes Ham, Lowestoft (Suffolk, UK) , 13th February 2011 - copyright Andrew Easton

(photo IDs: 2069-2069)

And a male from the same site:

Gadwall x Eurasian Wigeon hybrid (probably released; with Gadwall), Leathes Ham, Lowestoft (Suffolk, UK) , 25th December 2009 - copyright Andrew Easton

(photo ID: 2075)

This fairly typical-looking Gadwall x Wigeon hybrid was paired with a female Gadwall.  Dean blames a "hellish heat-haze in a flooded field with lots of undulations and rather long grass to disappear into" for the quality of his photos, but I have seen (and taken) a lot worse!

Gadwall x Eurasian Wigeon hybrid, Kilnsea (Yorkshire, UK), 5th May 2016 - copyright Dean Nicholson

(photo IDs: 2969-2974)

The possible trigen referred to above is this next bird.  I'll include one shot here as Gadwall x Eurasian Wigeon remains a very possible identification.  But it's quite different from other examples we've seen so far and there's a real chance that there are three species involved (with Pintail being the third).  For that reason I've put the fuller series of photos on a separate page: Gadwall x Eurasian Wigeon) x Northern Pintail trigen.

possible (Gadwall x Eurasian Wigeon) x Northern Pintail trigen, Leathes Ham, Lowestoft (Suffolk, UK) , 11th Februay 2012 - copyright Dave Appleton

(photo ID: 0326)

Gadwall Anas strepera
Eurasian Wigeon Anas penelope