Wood Ducks

By: Ted Beedy

 

Sometimes referred to as “Waterfowl Royalty,” the exquisite breeding plumage of male Wood Ducks reflects metallic patterns of green and violet when bathed in sunlight. They are the only North American waterfowl with entirely iridescent wings and backs, and males display more different colors than any other North American bird--complete with bright red eyes, golden flanks, and multicolored bills. Females are similar in shape, but wear more subdued tones of grayish brown with iridescent greenish-blue feathers on their wings and tops of their heads.  Their relatively small size (about half the size of mallards), wide tails, and broad wings enable graceful flight through dense woodlands. When disturbed, females make loud, nasal shrieks and the males give low, squeaky whistles. 

 

As their name suggests, Wood Ducks are partial to forested backwaters where oaks, willows, cottonwoods, or dogwoods form dense tangles over water. They search for oaks with abundant acorns, an especially favored food. Wood Ducks usually hunt for acorns and other seeds in leaf litter of the forest floor but also land in trees and pluck them from the highest branches. They also forage in water for aquatic plants, insects, and other foods.  Wood Ducks usually forage by bobbing at the water surface like puddle ducks, but will also make shallow dives for submerged prey.  

 

Courtship behavior begins in mid-winter, when females fly to high perches to summon prospective mates; they are unique among Sierra ducks in their ability to perch in trees. Often, several males will compete for a single female until she selects her favorite. Mated pairs show great affection and often preen each other gently on their heads and backs. Females invite copulation by submerging their bodies in shallow water with outstretched heads and necks, as their chosen mate circles nearby.

 

Cavities in large trees are the Wood Duck's natural nesting sites. However, most pairs now use artificial nest boxes that have been installed widely in the Sierra foothills and throughout the state. Within a day after hatching, females coax their downy young from the nest. The tiny size and fluffy down of day-old hatchlings allow them to flutter uninjured to the ground from heights more than 50 feet and then walk away to the nearest wetland. Mothers alone guard their broods from predators including raccoons, feral cats, opossums, and large predatory fish (especially largemouth bass) that may consume entire broods. The young are highly vulnerable to predators until they attain flight, which requires up to 70 days. After the breeding season, Wood Ducks do not require densely wooded areas and they might be seen floating with other ducks on open ponds, lakes, and reservoirs.

 

Excessive hunting pressure and destruction of lowland riparian habitats reduced Wood Duck populations in the early 1900s to the point that they were nearly extirpated from much of their historical range, including most of California. However, focused efforts by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ducks Unlimited, and California Waterfowl Association (CWA) have greatly increased local populations statewide, including in the Sierra foothills. Data from Sierra Christmas Bird Count Circles and Breeding Bird Survey routes show a stunning increase with numbers up nearly five-fold since the early 1980s. CWA’s Wood Duck nest box program is one of the main reasons for this rapid and impressive population recovery. Read on for my firsthand account of raising Wood Ducks in the Sierra foothills.  

 

Beedy Wood Duck Project

 

Our family moved to Banner Mountain in May 1996. We picked our property partly because it has a creek-fed, a quarter-acre pond that attracts waterfowl. Most are Mallards and Wood Ducks, but over the years I’ve seen all the western puddle ducks (i.e., Northern Pintails, Gadwalls, Northern Shovelers, American Wigeon, and Green-winged and Cinnamon Teal), Canada Geese, and one diver, a Common Merganser, on our pond.

 

In early 2000, I met with the CWA California Wood Duck Program District Manager, Craig Ferrari, at his property off Combie Road and saw large numbers of Wood Ducks and other waterfowl breeding at his ponds. Craig sold me five Wood Duck nest boxes that I hung on trees around our pond—all five were used by hens that year, so I bought three more boxes the following year. 

 

My initial thought was to hang the boxes fairly high on trees, using a ladder, to reduce the chance of predation by raccoons, skunks, coyotes, bobcats, feral cats, etc. that also frequent our yard. On a hot day in June 2001 I climbed about eight feet up the ladder and lifted the lid to see if the box was occupied by a nesting hen. An enormous hive of yellowjackets swarmed out of the box—I got stung about 10 times, instinctively jumped off the ladder, sprained my wrist and ankle, and crawled/stumbled into the pond and dove under the water to get them off me. I returned at dawn the next morning, when it was cool, and sprayed most of a can of “Black Flag” into the hole and covered it with duct tape--and got my revenge!

 

After the hens had finished nesting for that year, I moved all the boxes to eye-level so that I could reach them from stable ground and check their occupants using a mirror, and remove and maintain them with fresh nesting material, without having to use a ladder. Further, since starting the “Beedy Wood Duck Project” I have never observed predators getting into our boxes, so “hanging-them-high” is definitely not necessary! 

After mid-July when all the broods have hatched, I check the boxes to count the number of hatched eggs (and membranes) in successful nests, as well as unhatched eggs in “dump” nests where more than one hen had laid her eggs. Early on, I found a number of desiccated, dead ducklings that never made it out of the boxes. One morning, I saw a hen with her brood on the pond soon after hatching and heard a loud “peeping” from their box—I reached inside and found a single duckling that was left behind and released him/her on the pond where the hen accepted it into her brood. After that, I stapled ¼” wire mesh squares (~6” x 6”) inside each box, just below the entrances, to provide a toehold, and have not found any dead ducklings in my boxes since. In addition to Wood Ducks (and yellowjackets!), my boxes have been used by Western Gray Squirrels (most years), and intermittently by Western Screech-Owls with successful broods of 4 to 5 owlets.

 

During the past 25 years, my Wood Duck boxes have produced a total of 1,109 eggs and 772 hatched ducklings. Most hens and their broods soon leave our pond and follow the creek downstream, probably in search of macroinvertebrate prey and to avoid predators. However, each year at least one or two hens have remained on our pond and we have raised a total of 207 ducklings to adulthood. CWA recently reported that more than 1,000,000 ducklings have been produced through its nest box program in California, and I am proud to have made a small contribution to the recovery of these amazingly beautiful ducks!