Species Guide: Wood Duck (Aix sponsa).
Family: Anatidae
APPEARANCE
Wood Ducks are also known as North American Wood Ducks, and colloquially as Carolinas. Which as these names suggest, gives away that the Wood Duck is not native to the British Isles. Having been introduced into private collections, escapees have gradually established populations.
Key features to look out for in the male are:
- Distinctive green, blue, and violet coloring on its head, crest, and upper body.
- Buff coloring on their flanks.
- A web of white markings on their heads.
- The bill has a distinctive black outline.
Key features to look out for in the female are:
- Principally brown and black-color with a grey head
- A distinctive white patch around the eye.
- The beak is surrounded by a white band which points slightly into the eye.
Diet
The Wood Duck diet consists mainly of aquatic plants, including, seeds, snails, insects, and small fish, varying by season. They prefer to feed at dawn or dusk and rest in trees during the day.
HABITAT
Wood Ducks are shy birds, preferring to live with sufficient vegetation to hide under. Wooded wetlands and marshes are ideal habitats. Significantly, they are quite rare in the British Isles, with only a few scattered established populations.
Note, this map is provided as a rough illustration of animal distribution across the UK1, whereby light green indicates established populations.
Behavior
Significantly, Wood Ducks are unique among waterfowl in that they prefer to perch and nest in trees, demonstrating a remarkable adaptability to wooded environments. When these birds swim, their heads exhibit a distinctive jerking motion similar to that of a walking pigeon. Typically, Wood Ducks are observed in small groups, usually fewer than 20 individuals, and they prefer to maintain distance from other waterfowl.
Wood Duck Call:
Christopher McPherson, xeno-canto.org
Wood ducks usually start their egg-laying process between February and April. A female wood duck can lay between seven and fifteen eggs, which she incubates for around thirty days before they hatch. Once the eggs hatch, the ducklings are quick to climb to the entrance of the nest and leap to the ground the following day. Subsequently, the mother duck leaves the nest to feed and assess the safety of the area for her chicks. When she determines that it is safe, she calls the ducklings to follow her. She then guides them to the water, where they can learn to swim and forage for food independently.
Biometrics
NATURAL PREDATORS
Wood duck predators in the British Isles are predominantly mammals, including rats, stoats, weasels, mink, and foxes.
Conservation Status
By 1918, the Wood Duck was threatened with extinction in its native North American range due to loss of habitat. Since then, measures have been put in place to re-establish populations, and they are now classified as Least Concern5 by the International Union For The Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Global
Conservation Status
CITATIONS
- European Breeding Bird Atlas (EBBA) [Retrieved 28/02/2025] ↩︎
- Featherbase: Wood Duck Aix Sponsa [Retrieved 28/02/2025] ↩︎
- Cornell Lab Of Ornithology: Wood Duck Identification [Retrieved 28/02/2025] ↩︎
- Animalia: Wood Duck [Retrieved 28/02/2025] ↩︎
- International Union For The Conservation of Nature: Wood Duck [Retrieved 28/02/2025] ↩︎
