Mandarin Duck
Being colorful kills you apparently...

Food
-Omnivore
- Food:
- Seeds, grain, and acorns (HONO)
- Aquatic plants and fish (HONO)
- Insects and land snails (HONO)
- During fall- acorns and grains (HONO)
- During spring- insects, snails, fish, and vegetation (HONO)
- During summer- dew worms, grasshoppers, small fish, frogs, mollusks, small snakes, and rice from paddy fields (HONO) (BIWA 76)
-Predators:
- Mink (WIKI)
- Raccoon Dogs (WIKI)
- Otters (WIKI)
- Polecats (WIKI)
- Eagle Owls (WIKI)
- Grass snakes (WIKI)
Description
Classification:
- Bird (BIWA 76)
- Feathers, colorful
- 16-20 inches in length (BIWA 76)
- 27-29 inches in wingspan (BIWA 76)
- 15.5- 17.9 oz. in weight (BIWA 76)
- Acoustic (BBC)
- -Visual (BBC)
- Male is very colorful appearance (BIWA 76)
Reproduction
- breeding season in fall ( BIWA 76)
- female chooses mate at end of winter (BIWA 76)
- lays eggs at a suitable tree hole even if it is 50 feet up (BIWA 77)
- eggs are glossy buff to ivory (HONO)
- 8-10 eggs (HONO)
- eggs hatch, chicks fall to the ground, and follow their mother for six weeks (BIWA 77)
Adaptation
Adaptations for Protection:
- Agile flyers (BIWA 76)
- able to do sharp turns between trees from danger (BIWA 76)
- Light body (BIWA 76)
- Broad wings (BIWA 76)
- calls are short for courtship and alarm (BIWA 76)
- semi- migratory (HONO)
- social (HONO)
- shy, can not tolerate human disturbance (BIWA 76)
- males fight each other for females (HONO)
- sticks with same partner (HONO)