Wood Duck

Description:

Wood ducks are fairly small ducks with the female being mostly brown with a distinctive white eye ring. Males are arguably the most handsome of the North American waterfowl. He has a reddish brown breast, green head with white throat, neck and chinstrap markings. The crest is green and outlined in white, eyes are brilliant red, and bill reddish tipped with black. Sides are burnished bronze, wings dark. Both males and females have a crest although it typically lays down the neck. These are ducklings just leaving the nest.

Habitat:

Wooded wetlands and nearby uplands when nesting. Wood ducks are cavity nesting tree ducks. As a result, they readily take to large nest boxes, such as this one.

Notes:

I put up this nest box a number of years ago. Mostly, it has been a gray squirrel nest box. I had nearly given up ever getting wood ducks to nest there, but this year I was so pleasantly surprised when I spotted a wood duck going into the box. The ducklings leave the nest within a few hours of hatching and the process is quick as the hen will land on the ground and call to her ducklings. They then leap one by one to the ground, often bouncing several centimeters back up into the air. Fortunately they are rarely injured, even when the nest box is 20 meters off the ground. (Mine is about 7 meters off the ground. She then leads them to a nearby pond. I was very fortunate to happen to be standing near the window when the hen flew down to the ground rather than just flying off to find water and food. I grabbed the camera and started snapping photos as the young emerged....