American Wigeon Lofoten July 2017

I still have a load of photos and experiences from last year's summer holiday that I should blog about but can begin here with an account of a female American Wigeon. I was just twitching the bird and the impressive work behind finding it and identifying it belongs to far more accomplished birders than myself ;-)

Females are notoriously difficult to separate from European Wigeons and even well observed birds may not be possible to ID 100% let alone be approved by a rarities committee but this bird seems to fit the bill.

a snapshot from the video showing the persil white underwing axillaries. This is one of the main ways to separate from European Wigeon which are grey. That said though I have seen a number of photos of European Wigeon where the coverts look white although sunlight and slight over exposure may play role.