North American Wood Duck Habitats: Cavity Nests, Drab Females, Gaudy Males, White Eggs

Summary: North American wood duck habitats link cavity nests, drab females, gaudy males and white eggs seasonally in Canada and Mexico, year-round in the United States.

A pair of female (front) and male (back) North American wood ducks (Aix sponsa) take a walk; Saturday, March 6, 2010, 09:25: Andrea Westmoreland from DeLand, United States, CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

North American wood duck habitats advance cultivation through appetites for crustaceans, insects and spiders, hunting through appearances from Canada to Mexico and naturalism through year-long distribution ranges in the eastern United States.

Wood ducks bear the common names acorn, Carolina and summer ducks and the scientific name Aix sponsa (diving-bird [in] bridal [dress]) as nut-eating, southern-, warmth-, wood-lovers. Collection, development, drainage, hunting, pollution, predation, recreation and tourism challenge the wood duck, described in 1758 by Swedish zoologist Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1787). Flocks draw together half-siblings and their mothers into cavity nests and nest boxes since mothers-to-be sometimes develop built and natural domiciles into communal, maternity ward-like domains.

Eighteen-year lifespans expect open water and vegetative cover from beaver ponds, bottomland forests, freshwater marshes and swamps and wooded shores of creeks, lakes, rivers and streams.

January through August furnish seasonally monogamous opportunities for brooding two six- to 16-egg clutches in farm buildings, natural holes, nest boxes, tree cavities and woodpecker nest-holes.

Females gather downy nest-lining from white breast-feathers after going cavity-hunting with their mates early in the morning up to 1.2 miles (1.93 kilometers) from water bodies. Two- to 15-foot- (0.61- to 4.58-meter-) deep nests with 4-plus-inch (10.16-plus-centimeter-) wide openings 2 to 60 feet (0.61 to 18.29 meters) high house glossy, smooth clutches. Mothers-to-be incubate cream-white to tan, 1.8- to 2.4-inch (4.57- to 6.09-centimeter) by 1.4- to 1.7-inch (3.56- to 4.32-centimeter), subelliptical to oval eggs 28 to 37 days.

Alligators, black rat snakes, bullfrogs, collectors, gray and red foxes, great horned owls, hunters, mink, raccoons, snapping turtles and woodpeckers jeopardize North American wood duck habitats.

Brown-eyed, downy, long-tailed, precocious hatchlings know black-brown crowns and upper-parts, dark eye-to-nape lines, gray-white to yellow faces and underparts, white rear-edged wings and white-spotted lower backs.

Fast-functioning blue-gray bills with red-brown nails, gray-yellow feet and legs and open eyes launch sharp-clawed nestlings from nest entrances to the ground one day after hatching. Chicks manage five alarm, contact and threatening calls within two to three days, flight 54 to 67 days later and sexual maturity one year after hatching. Adults need arachnid-, crustacean-, insect-, mollusk-rich diets of ants, bees, beetles, caddisflies, caterpillars, crabs, damselflies, dragonflies, flies, moths, pillbugs, shrimp, slugs, snails, sowbugs, spiders and wasps.

North American wood duck habitats also offer omnivorous adults acorns, blackberries, duckweed, hickory nuts, maple seeds, millet, panic-grass, smartweed, soybeans, water primrose, waterlily and wild cherries.

Daytime forages, defensive chasing, hitting, jabbing, jerking and pecking, speed in diving, flying, swimming and walking and 12 adult calls protect flock-based wood duck life cycles.

Alder, arrowhead, buttonbush, smartweed and willow qualify as camouflage, during winter-coldest temperatures of minus 40 degrees Celsius and Fahrenheit, through 900-foot (274.32-meter) altitudes above sea level. Burgundy flanks, maroon breasts, pale bellies and under-tails, red eyes and white breast, chin, face, head and neck stripes reveal black bill-tipped, helmet-headed, rectangular-tailed, stout-bodied males. Deep-winged, heads-up, rapid flights on 26- to 29-inch (66.04- to 73.66-centimeter) wingspans suggest 16- to 30-ounce (453.59- to 850.49-gram), 18.5- to 21.5-inch (46.99- to 54.61-centimeter) adults.

The rising oh-eek-oh-eek call and the up-slurred, wheezy, whistled zweeet vocalization respectively tell of brown-and-white females and of gaudy males in North American wood duck habitats.

An unhatched wood duck (Aix sponsa) egg, held in gloved hand of wildlife technician Kelly Tingle, was retrieved during annual nest box maintenance check conducted by Biological Sciences, Environmental Management Division, at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, Jacksonville, Onslow County, southeastern North Carolina; Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012, 09:45: U.S. Marine Corps, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

A pair of female (front) and male (back) North American wood ducks (Aix sponsa) take a walk; Saturday, March 6, 2010, 09:25: Andrea Westmoreland from DeLand, United States, CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mr._and_Mrs._Wood_Duck_Taking_a_Stroll_-_Flickr_-_Andrea_Westmoreland.jpg

An unhatched wood duck (Aix sponsa) egg, held in gloved hand of wildlife technician Kelly Tingle, was retrieved during annual nest box maintenance check conducted by Biological Sciences, Environmental Management Division, at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, Jacksonville, Onslow County, southeastern North Carolina; Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012, 09:45: U.S. Marine Corps, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USMC-120123-M-GL246-015.jpg

For further information:

Baicich, Paul J.; and Harrison, Colin J.O. Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds. Second edition. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, Princeton Field Guides, 2005.

Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 2nd edition. Volumes 8-11, Birds I-IV, edited by Michael Hutchins, Jerome A. Jackson, Walter J. Bock and Donna Olendorf. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2002.

Linnaeus, Carl. 1758. "35. Aix sponsa." Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, Secundum Classes, Ordines, Genera, Species, cum Characteribus, Differentiis, Synonymis, Locis, Tomus I, Editio Decima, Reformata: 128. Holmiae [Stockholm, Sweden]: Laurentii Salvii [Laurentius Salvius].
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/727033

Peterson, Alan P., M.D. "Aix sponsa (Linnaeus) 1758." Zoonomen: Zoological Nomenclature Resource > Birds of the World -- Current Valid Scientific Avian Names > Anseriformes > Anatidae > Aix.
Available @ http://www.zoonomen.net/avtax/anse.html

"The 2012 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map." The National Gardening Association > Gardening Tools > Learning Library USDA Hardiness Zone > USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map.
Available @ https://garden.org/nga/zipzone/2012/