-
Wood Duck
- Texas A&M University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
39 but their nesting season may coincide with the rainy season in more tropical areas. They add down to their nests but do not carry vegetation to the nest cavity. Eggs are laid at a rate of 1 per day, and only females incubate. Clutch size varies from 9 to 15 eggs. Their incubation period is about 30 days. Renesting has been documented. Duckling ecology is unstudied. APPEARANCE Muscovy Ducks are brownish black to black with conspicuous white patches on their upper wing.Their body, neck, and head often have purple or green iridescence. Males have bare skin around the base of their bill and their eyes, and their facial skin is black with some reddish areas, usually between their eyes and bill, and typically has fleshy caruncles. Females do not have bare skin around their eyes, and their caruncles are reduced or absent. There are considerable size differences between female and male Muscovy Ducks. Females weigh 2.4 to 3.2 pounds and males weigh 4.4 to 8.8 pounds. SOURCES introduction: Hesse 1980; Stahl et al. 2006. texas distribution: Brush and Eitniear 2002; Lockwood and Freeman 2004. diet: Johnsgard 1975, 1978; Woodyard and Bolen 1984. range and habitats : Lack 1974; Johnsgard 1975, 1978; Woodyard and Bolen 1984; Markum and Baldassarre 1989; Eitniear et al. 1998. reproduction: Bolen 1971b; Johnsgard 1975, 1978; Woodyard and Bolen 1984; Markum and Baldassarre 1989. appearance: Leopold 1959; Johnsgard 1975, 1978 WOOD DUCK Aix sponsa Wood Ducks are the only species of North American waterfowl that double broods frequently or produces two successful broods per season. Double brooding has been recorded throughout the lower two-thirds of their range, including Texas. Depending on location and year, 0–18 percent of females may double brood. TEXAS DISTRIBUTION Breeding: Wood Ducks commonly nest throughout the eastern three-fourths of Texas, but nesting densities are highest in the Pineywoods and Post Oak Savannah–Blackland Prairies. Localized breeding may take place in the remainder of the state if adequate wetlands and nest cavities are available. Wood Ducks are uncommon residents along the Rio Grande in El Paso County. perching ducks 40 Migration and Winter: Texas hosts both resident and migrant Wood Ducks, so it is difficult to gauge the progress of migration. They may occur statewide during fall and winter but are typically only common in the eastern portion of the state. Depending on the calculation method used, density estimates in flooded forests in Nacogdoches County ranged from 0.45 to 1 duck per 2.47 acres. Wood Ducks are likely underestimated in the Texas Mid-winter Waterfowl Survey, as forested wetlands are not conducive to aerial surveys. TEXAS HARVEST From 1999 to 2006, Wood Duck harvest in Texas averaged 64,180 annually. This was approximately 5 percent of their annual US harvest. LONGEVITY The average life span of adult males and females is 1.7 and 1.4 years, respectively. The longevity record for a wild Wood Duck is 22 years, six months. Wood Duck (male and female; note the feathers on the male’s head are windblown in an atypical way). Photograph by Raymond S. Matlack, January 6, 2007, Amarillo, Potter County, Texas [18.232.185.167] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 06:36 GMT) 41 POPULATION STATUS Wood Ducks have long rebounded from once dreadfully low population levels. Estimates based on harvest and banding data suggest the continental population may exceed 2.9 million. They have a healthy, if not increasing, population. Their populations are monitored through banding efforts, regional surveys, regional nest box monitoring programs, and harvest surveys. DIET Wood Ducks are omnivorous. In Missouri, invertebrates accounted for 76 percent of the diet of laying females; important invertebrates were scavenger beetles, diving beetle larvae, crane fly larvae, horse fly larvae, and midges. Crayfish and snails are also consumed by breeding Wood Ducks. In Cherokee County, Texas, their fall and winter diet was 97 percent plant material, with acorns accounting for 78 percent of their diet. Wintering Wood Ducks may also consume corn and soybeans. RANGE AND HABITATS Breeding: Wood Ducks breed in southeastern Canada, the eastern United States, and Cuba. Nesting also occurs in southwestern Canada, the Pacific Northwest, and California and in forested riparian zones of central North America. Isolated breeding populations occur in urban areas outside of their traditional range and in Mexico. Breeding pairs are found on rivers, streams, riparian wetlands, beaver ponds, shrubscrub wetlands, ponds, lakes, temporary wetlands, marshes, moist-soil management wetlands, and forested wetlands. Preformed, existing cavities...