Storm Wigeon?

[h2ofowlr]

Have any of you guys shot any storm wigeons?

[chester]

Up until i looked at your pic there i never knew what one looked like. Cant say that I or anyone I know has. cool looking bird tho. How common are they?

[jordano]

how can you tell if it is a storm wigeon or not?

[Fishnclifff]

I've shot those, but never heard that term before.

[singleshot12]

Yeah I've taken a couple like that late in the season,  just figured they were very mature wigeon. I've always wanted a Eurasian.

[WCTaxidermy]

Nice bird h20fowlr.  I can't see most of the head, but what I can see it looks like he is about 75% of the way to being a stormy.  They have a nickname of "salt and pepper" Storm Widgeon when they are almost there but not quite.  Your bird is an awesome looking bird.  Congrat's.  John

[CountryslickR]

Yes infact I did the other day! Didn't know about the Storm..any info on the birds?

[singleshot12]

Yeah I've never really heard of them either.. Are they a subspecies, differant color phase, or just a very old northern wigeon?  Very cool looking bird.

[bobcat]

I never heard of the term storm widgeon before so I Googled it. Seems it isn't a separate species, it's either a color variation or just an old, mature American widgeon. It looks like it's only hunters using the term.

[h2ofowlr]

A little bit of info on them.  Storm wigeon is a phase of color on an american wigeon which is why you will find little about it. It is also a fairly recent phenomenon which is currently being studied on what the cause is (meaning it hasnt really peaked interest until the last 20 years). There are also birds that have storm traits but arent quite full storm so there is no cut and dry storm or not storm.
I have shot many very mature wigeon drakes over the years.  Everyonce in a while we pick one up that is similar to the picture posted or almost completely white head with a green eye patch.  I see more euro's than I do ones with white heads.
These are 3 pictures of wigeon that I pulled off of the internet for comparison.

[T-Rip]

I've bagged a few of those over the years..... a couple from Nisqually and 1 in the Chehalis River Valley. They are very cool. Thanks for sharing H2O.

[C-Money]

Cool bird! Looks like a nice limit! Congrast!

[Dustin07]

the last example, of the dead one, I'd be tempted to get mounted. I haven't shot a storm variation myself yet.

[jordano]

thanks for all of the info! much appreciated!

[muleyslayer#1]

Yea I got one last year there was barely any green on his face and right after that my brother got a Eurasian wigeon