WOOD DUCKS
Jillian Bracey
MALES:
- They have a crested head with green and purple with a white stripe leading from the eye to the end of the crest
- A white stripe from the base of the bill to the tip of the crest.
- Their throat is white and the chest is burgundy with little white feathers
- The beak is black, white and red.
- The feet and legs are redish-yellow
FEMALES
- They have a gray-brown head and neck with a brownish-green chest.
- Around the is a white teardrop shaped spot.
- The throat is white and the breast is gray-brown stippled with white,that goes into the white belly.
- The beak is blue-gray. The legs and feet are dull grayish-yellow.
BREEDING
- breed across most of the central and eastern United States, southeastern Canada and along the Pacific coast from California to British Columbia.
- The largest breeding area happens in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley.
- In the past couple years, breeding got more popular in the westward into the Great Plains area along with the development of wooded riparian corridors.
- Wood ducks would rather riparian habitats, wooded swamps and freshwater marshes.
- Females nest in tree cavities or nest boxes and lay about 12 bone-white eggs.
MIGRATING
- In the eastern and western United States most of wood ducks use the Atlantic Flyway from New Brunswick to Georgia and south to eastern Texas and the West Indies.
- The western migratory birds use the Pacific Flyway from British Columbia to the Central Valley of California.
ABOUT
- Mostly known for their bright colors
- These birds live in wooded swamps, they nest in holes or in nest boxes put up around lake margins.
- They are one of the few ducks that have strong claws that can grip on bark and tree branches.
- The ducklings mostly eat insects, worms, craw fish, and small fish. when they get older algea, pondweeds, acorns, nuts, seeds & water lilies.