Beautiful wood ducks belong to North America, where the birds were driven nearly to extinction

In some areas, wooden ducks are also referred to as Carolina ducks, acorn ducks, swamp ducks or woodies. (Image: Richard George)

The wood duck is amongst the most colourful and attractive of waterfowl, and we are lucky to have them – they are discovered only in North The united states, even with early New England settlers clearing land by removing the tree cavities in which wood ducks nest and professional hunters in the 1800s, as they did to lots of birds, driving them virtually to extinction. These resilient birds created a comeback right after state and federal laws were being handed shielding migratory birds in the early 1900s, while even with these legislation the deficiency of nesting locations are a risk. The previous-advancement forests have been absent and not returning anytime soon.

In the 1950s, conservationists commenced a statewide program in which lots of Massachusetts wildlife refuges installed nest boxes for wooden ducks. This work assisted wooden duck populations rebound, but then the use of pesticides this kind of as DDT killed bugs that the young ducks ate, and the populace declined once again till legislators banned its use in the 1970s. Right now, experienced forests, managed searching and growing beaver populations, who create favorable nesting habitat, are helping wood duck populations rebound. There are now extra than 4.6 million wood ducks in the United States – although they nonetheless encounter a lot of threats, like local weather change, urbanization and the declining numbers of bugs. Hunters shoot much more mallards than any other duck, but wooden ducks are a near 2nd.

Female wooden ducks have light-weight brown feathers with dim blue on the wings and a yellow ring all over the eye males are colorful birds with an iridescent eco-friendly head, purple eyes and some crimson on the bill. (Photographs: Richard George)

Some wood ducks live in Massachusetts yr-round, but most migrate south. Some get started leaving our space in August several continue to be at minimum right until Oct. If a winter season is moderate, greater figures will stay until eventually spring. In hotter climates, most female wooden ducks breed when they are a 12 months old, but in colder climates such as our Massachusetts local weather, marginally much more than half of girls wait to breed right up until they are 2 a long time aged. It is believed that women need to have to conserve their electrical power to survive the colder temperature, and consequently hold off breeding. Most wood ducks overwinter in woody swamps from the Carolinas to Florida.

Wood ducks forage on bugs when they are youthful as they age, their diet capabilities far more plant issue. (Picture: Ann Schlesinger)

Wooden ducks commence pairing up in January and are already partnered when they get there in our location in spring. They cannot excavate their individual nests, so they breed in cavities in trees or in nest boxes ideally in the vicinity of or around water. The woman wood duck lays up to a dozen eggs. If she are unable to come across a fantastic nest cavity, she may possibly do it in the nest of an additional wooden duck! Mainly because of this egg dumping, it is not abnormal for a feminine to hatch 24 or extra ducklings.

The morning right after they hatch, little one wooden ducks climb or jump into the h2o, where by they paddle in the vicinity of their mom. They are specially vulnerable at this age, and numerous are taken by predators such as snapping turtles or other birds. The average amount of children in a Massachusetts wood duck spouse and children at delivery is 12.5 ducklings two months later, when the wood ducks are completely ready to fly on their personal, the regular variety of children is only 5.8 ducklings.

A juvenile wood duck swims at Alewife Reservation. (Photo: Ann Schlesinger)

The young ducklings feed on insects in the drinking water, switching slowly to vegetation as they improve feathers and call for less protein in their eating plan. Wood ducks dabble, not dive: They upend by themselves in the h2o when searching for foodstuff. They consume seeds, crops, bugs and crustaceans, between other food items. They even try to eat land-based food stuff, this sort of as acorns or grains, blackberries or wild cherries.

Throughout the Dust Bowl period, drought conditions threatened our nation’s wetlands, and duck populations declined precipitously. So, in 1934, Congress passed the Migratory Fowl Searching and Conservation Stamp Act, recognized as the Duck Stamp Act. To hunt ducks, hunters had to obtain a federal stamp (now $25). The federal government put in this money to conserve wetlands across the United States. Considering the fact that they have been printed, ducks stamps have created extra than $1.1 billion to get or lease land for the Nationwide Wildlife Refuge Procedure and been accountable for the conservation of far more than 6 million acres of wetlands in the United States. There is also a Massachusetts point out duck stamp, which costs $5. The federal stamp offers absolutely free admission to countrywide wildlife refuges that have an entrance price. For this cause, quite a few birders, photographers and conservationists buy them much too. There are 11 these types of national wildlife refuges in Massachusetts, the closest currently being Good Meadows in Harmony and Sudbury.

The very first federal duck stamp was drawn by Jay N. “Ding” Darling. (Photo: U.S. Organic Study, Section of Agriculture, by means of Wikimedia Commons)

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Jeanine Farley is an instructional author who has lived in the Boston region for much more than 30 a long time. She enjoys using pics of our urban wild issues.