Wood Duck – Wild Dabbling Duck Breed

These are one of the most striking duck breeds. The male has an intricate colorful pattern on nearly all of his feathers. Whilst the female is a soft elegant shade of silver gray with a seductive white eyepatch.

Other Names: Pato Joyuyo (Spanish) and Carnard branchu (French)

Found in these parts of the US: Wooded Swamp areas throughout North America

Migratory? They fly north after the breeding season when their young are able to fly

Favorite Habitat: Swamps, freshwater marshes, bottomland forests and beaver ponds

Other Know Habitats: Creeks and rivers

Mating Habits: They nest in tree cavities that are mostly 1 to 3 foot in diameter. They prefer the cavity to be at least 2 to 60 feet high.

Nesting Habitat: Wood ducks cannot make their own tree cavities and usually choose a cavity in the tree where a branch has fallen off leaving the heartwood of the tree to rot.

The nest will either be over or really near to water although they have known to use cavities that are situated about a mile away from the water.

Nest Details: The opening of the cavity can be as small as 4 inches across and the depth may vary depending on the tree.

The female will line the nest with her down feathers from her breast for insulation.

Nesting Information:

Clutch Size
6 – 16 eggs

No. Broods
1-2

Incubation Time Egg Color
28 – 37 days White or creamy white

Hatchlings: They will nest with their mothers for quite a while after they are born.

Once they are all ready about a day after hatching, they will jump out of the nest’s entrance.

Ducklings: The ducks will follow their mother to the water

Characteristics: Wood ducks can reach up to 30 miles per hour when flying. They are not at all territorial and other than a mating spat they hardly fight at all.

Favorite Foods: They have been known to eat food such as acorns and forest nuts when there is not an abundance of aquatic food.

But their favorite is usually arthropods, insects and fruit.