The Courage Of Wood Ducks

The North American wood duck is one of the most striking and beautiful of all waterfowl. I remember the first time I saw a wood duck in real life. I stared at it in awe as it didn't seem to be real. It was like looking at a painted sculpture floating on the water. While all birds are beautiful in their own right, wood ducks are truly living works of art. I'm excited to share with you some unique behaviors about the wood duck that may surprise you. But first, let's cover some of the basics and then we'll get into what really sets this bird apart from other waterfowl. The wood duck is part of the family known as Annatidae, which includes about 174 species of swans, geese, and ducks, including the dabbling ducks. The wood duck, however, is classified as a perching duck, even though it shares many characteristics with the dabbling ducks. It belongs to the genus known as X and has the species name of X.sponsa. It shares this genus with only one other bird, the equally beautiful mandarin duck, which is found in China, Japan, Korea, and parts of Russia. The wood duck is sometimes referred to as the Carolina duck and is of the most colorful of North American waterfowl. There is also the Australian wood duck, who is part of the Annatidae family but resides in a different genus than the North American wood duck. The wood duck male is nothing short of striking in appearance, with his beautiful iridescent green and chestnut feathers and ornate markings. He has a distinctive crest, red eyes, and white markings on his face and body. The female is also lovely with her soft hues of brown and gray. She has sapphire blue and white on her wings. Note the white teardrop shape around her eye and the smaller crest than that of the male. The wood duck is smaller and more compact than another commonly known waterfowl, the mallard duck. Its bill and neck are thinner and it has shorter wings and a longer and broader tail. After breeding season ends, the male wood duck undergoes a molt, losing his exuberant and colorful plumage and taking on a more subtle appearance that is similar to that of the female. This is known as eclipse plumage. Since fine and fancy feathers aren't needed in the fall and winter, it's in his best interest to blend in more with his surroundings. Come springtime, he'll don his colorful plumage once again and try his best to charm a new mate. There is a lot of variety in a wood duck's diet. Like the dabbling ducks, they use their bills to nibble along the water surface in search of their favorite aquatic plants, such as duckweed, water primrose, water lily, and smartweed. Occasionally, they may tip upside down to reach the bottom or to feed among the aquatic plants. When those food sources aren't abundant, they take to land in search of acorns, soybeans, millet, blackberries, and wild cherries. They also help themselves to flies, beetles, caterpillars, isopods, and snails. The wood duck is at home in bottomland forests, swamps, freshwater marshes, and beaver ponds. In addition, close proximity to any kind of stream, creek, or river that has a good amount of trees and vegetation nearby are ideal habitat for the wood duck to hide and forage in. To learn that a duck perches in a tree might surprise you. That certainly was the case for Mia one time. I was walking along a trail in the woods that was near a river and a pair of wood ducks flew by me and landed in a tree. The wood duck has long toes and strong claws that provide it with stability and security to perch and grip tree bark. Its short wings and long, broad tail are the perfect equipment needed to maneuver safely among the trees. When your territory is woods and vegetation, you need to be able to think on your wings and respond quickly to the constantly changing landscape. The wood duck's preferred nesting site is not on land. It's in tree cavities. They don't excavate their own nest cavity, but look for those that are formed naturally, usually from where a tree branch has broken off and the tree's heartwood has rotted. Occasionally, they will use those that were created by pileated woodpeckers. Here's how house hunting goes for wood ducks. A pair search for a nest cavity in the early morning. The male stands outside while the female gives the site a thorough look over to make sure it's a structure in which to lay her eggs. Their first choice is for a tree cavity that is near or over water, though they will occasionally use cavities up to a mile away. Sometimes, good real estate is just hard to find. They prefer trees that are one to two feet in diameter and a cavity that is up to 60 feet off the ground. Higher cavities are desirable as they provide some amount of protection from predators. Sometimes, wood ducks will face competition for nest cavities from gray squirrels and birds of prey. Wood ducks are monogamous for a season. Come the following year, all bets are off and they go back into the dating scene in search of a new mate. Courting behavior begins during the late winter, well before the breeding season begins. Wood ducks tend to not be territorial except that a paired male will fight off other males if they get too close to his mate. Once a pair bond is established, his focus is on protecting and defending her. After the nest site has been selected and the female lays her eggs, the male leaves and goes to join other males. The female incubates the eggs alone and is solely responsible for care of the young. One of the unique features of wood ducks is that they are the only North American duck to produce two broods in one season, though the second brood is often smaller than the first. Wood ducks that live in the more northern latitudes of the United States and southern Canada nest from April to July. In the southern latitudes, they may nest from mid-March all the way to early September. The female lines the nest with feathers from her breast and lays 9 to 11 eggs and incubates the eggs for about a month. If nest boxes have been set up for wood ducks and are too close to each other, there may be instances of brood parasitism where females lay their eggs in their neighbor's nest to be raised by the other female. This is known as egg dumping and can usually be detected by unusually large clutch sizes. This may have become more common due to the abundance and conspicuousness of artificial nest boxes than naturally formed tree cavities. Wood duck chicks are precocial. This means that very shortly after hatching, the down-covered chicks open their eyes and are up and walking, ready to explore the outside world. And then, one of the most incredible avian events happens. Having hatched only one day prior, the mother leaves the ducklings in the nest and calls to them, beckoning them out of the comfort and safety of their nest. Remember I mentioned earlier that wood ducks have strong claws for perching? They come in handy here too. Motivated by instinct, the chicks use their claws and climb up to the opening of the nest cavity, which may be about 2 feet deep. Once at the entrance, they take their first look out at the world from 5 stories above ground. The chicks have but one choice. Jump! Unable to fly, the chicks leap out of the nest, landing in the leaf letter with a bounce, unscathed and unharmed. One by one, they all climb their way to the tree cavity entrance and take the leap into the life they were born to live. Weighing only about 15 grams, these brown and yellow puffballs follow their mother's call as she leads them to water. If their nest cavity was over water, they make their inaugural jump right into the water. Amazing. Just amazing. Wood ducks who live in the southern United States and the Pacific coast tend to be year-round residents while those in the northern U.S. and Canada migrate south for the winter. One interesting thing to note is that if females have had success in raising young, they will return to the same breeding ground the following year. Wood duck populations are stable and have even slightly increased. However, this hasn't always been the case. In the 19th century, there was a serious decline due to habitat loss and the hunting of wood ducks for meat and use of their plumage for ladies' hats. Thanks to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 between the U.S. and Canada and regulations on hunting, populations began to recover. They still face threats from loss of wetland habitats and deforestation. The wood duck's natural predators include raccoons, foxes, skunks, opossums, snakes, domestic cats, largemouth bass, turtles, blue jays, starlings, and even squirrels. With so much opposition around them, it's no wonder that there's such a high mortality rate of eggs and ducklings. If you live in an area that is ideal habitat for wood ducks and would like to put up a nest box for them, take a look at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Nest Watch page. You can download construction plans and read about other useful tips to keep predators away from the nest box. I'll put a link in the description below if you want to check it out. So I hope you enjoyed learning about these beautiful, courageous ducks. What was the most interesting thing that you learned about them? Let me know in the comments section below. And as always, thank you so much for watching, and happy birding!