Facts Sheet
Our local female Wood Duck, Aix sponsa, laid her first egg on April 1st, 2008, adding one each day until the clutch was complete. In the typical female nest, incubation does not begin until the clutch is complete. Since embryo development is triggered by the warmth of incubation, a female that waits insures that all eggs develop at the same rate and hatch synchronously at about the 30-day mark.
Aix sponsa breeds in February and early March in the south and mid-March to mid April in the northern areas. In southern areas it is common for wood ducks to produce two broods in one breeding season. Nests are built in cavities and are lined with wood chips and down. Females lay 6 to 15 eggs. Eggs are incubated for about 30 days and the chicks leave the nest within 24 hours of hatching. Ducklings hatch 6 to 18 hours after the first crack appears in their shells. They are precocial and leave the nest within 24 hours of hatching (the mother calls the ducklings out of the nest). The female makes sure that there are no predators in the area before the ducklings leave the nest. Once out of the nest, the ducklings scatter in search of food. The chicks become independent from their mothers after 56 to 70 days of care, and reach sexual maturity in one year.Males do not care for the young.
Wood ducks are omnivores. They feed on nuts, fruits, aquatic plants and seeds, aquatic insects and other invertebrates. The majority of their food includes acorns, hickory nuts, maple seeds, smart weeds, Diptera (true flies), Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), Hemiptera (true bugs), Coleoptera (beetles), Isopoda (pillbugs and sowbugs), Decapoda (shrimp, crabs, and relatives), Trichoptera (caddisflies), Hymenoptera (wasps, bees, and ants), Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies), and Gastropoda (gastropods, slugs, snails).
As a result of hunting and habitat destruction A. sponsa was near extinction in the early nineteen hundreds. Today, despite the fact that they are hunted, their population is thriving. Hunting laws have been put into place to protect them and man-made nest boxes are being created to counter their loss of habitat. Man-made nests are placed at least 600 feet apart in secluded areas where nests would occur naturally. They are made of wood, leaves and other material.
Wood ducks are protected by the US Migratory Bird Treaty Act.