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Wood Duck

Status Rare to locally uncommon in summer, very rare in winter. Breeds. The present population has recovered through protection from severe overhunting and has been much augmented by restocking and escapes from captive flocks. Spring migrants (not birds that have overwintered) first appear usually in April (average 9 April, earliest 18 March). It was recently successfully introduced to Cape Breton Island and thus it nests in small numbers throughout the province, most regularly in the border region. Latest migrants are normally seen in November (average 9 November, latest 29 November), and a few stragglers routinely occur on Christmas Bird Counts. One was shot on Brier Island on 5 February 1967, and since 1975 individuals or small groups have regularly wintered among wild birds fed by the public at Sullivans Pond in Dartmouth.

Description Length: 43-53 cm. Adult male: Top of crested head iridescent green and blue. Two lines of white extend into crest, one from base of bill and one from behind eye; cheeks purple; chin and throat contrasting white, this extending as a forked stripe, one branch going up side of head and the other towards back of neck; white band between breast and flank, bordered behind with one of black; breast and patch on each side of the base of tail reddish chestnut; back dark green with bronze and purple iridescence; wings mixed iridescent blue and purple, with narrow white line along hind edge; tail rather long, black with green iridescence; belly white; sides buff; speculum steely blue; eyes red; legs dull yellow. Adult female: Head dark gray with slight greenish gloss; crest shorter than in male; throat, chin and eye ring white; upperparts brownish gray with weak bronze reflections; wing similar to male's; underparts streaked with buff and white; belly paler, almost white.

Breeding Nest: In a hollow tree, the old nest of a large woodpecker or manmade nest box; height from the ground 1-15 m or more, availability of site being the determining factor; I know of no nest located far from fresh water. Eggs: 8-15, pale buff or creamy white. They are deposited on rotten wood mixed with down from the female's breast. I have seen only one occupied nest of this species. It was located in a live maple growing in swampy woods within a metre of the shore of Moose Lake, near Italy Cross, Lunenburg County. The entrance to the natural cavity was an opening, about 3.5 m up, and the nest proper was about 60 cm perpendicularly below it. On 10 June 1960 the female was on the nest but refused to leave when the tree trunk was heavily pounded from below. She could be seen dimly, as could the down used in nest construction, through a small natural aperture in the trunk at nest level. The contents of this nest were not determined and the male was not seen.

Range Breeds from southern Canada south to the southern United States and Cuba. Winters largely in southern sections of its breeding range.

Remarks Wood Ducks were hunted relentlessly after the Europeans arrived on this continent. Relatively tame and unwary, they were easily killed from ambush. The drakes are at the peak of their plumage perfection during the breeding season and many were killed about their nests and mounted for home adornment. Later, their brightly coloured feathers were in demand for artificial trout flies. It is probable that the species was saved from extinction by the protection afforded it under the Migratory Bird Convention in 1916, because the species has shown a marked recovery since then.

Wood Ducks frequently have difficulty in finding suitable nesting sites. One spring in Cumberland County, a female Wood Duck came to a chimney carrying a stick in her beak, obviously with the intention of building a nest therein, and had to be discouraged before giving up her plan. If a nest-box is suitably constructed and erected in natural habitat, Wood Ducks will often take possession. The entrance hole, if round, should not exceed 9-10 cm in diameter; and diamond-shaped holes, 7.5 by 10 cm, are best for reducing raccoon predation. If the nest-box is fastened to the top of a pole driven into the bottom of a shallow pond or lagoon near a wooded bank, a measure of safety from furred predators will be provided; such nests can be placed by cutting a hole in the ice before the spring breakup. Soon after hatching the young "jump for it" from their nest sites, their fall being broken by their tiny, extended feet and their small, flapping wings. But how does a little one reach the entrance of the cavity, some 30 cm straight up from the nest, to make this jump? It is born with unusually sharp toenails and a sharp, hooked nail (soon to be shed) at the end of its tiny bill which enable it to climb the perpendicular wall.

Wood Ducks may use the same nest site year after year, and it was long presumed that the same pair returned together. More recently, through banding, it has been found that it is the female that comes back, but invariably with a new mate. Pairing occurs on the wintering grounds and, when the northward migration begins, she leads him to the nest site of the year before. In some species, such as the Yellow Warbler, it is the male that returns each year; but in these cases pairing does not occur until nest construction is about to commence