By AMY FOLEY
Sheridan High School Student
Editor’s note: The Sheridan Student Column is brought to readers by Sheridan High School’s 10th grade Accelerated English class, taught by Alicia Burnell.
Living in the Midwest, there’s a good chance that you’ve seen a duck before. You may have seen one at the park, swimming in a pond, or even flying overhead. Ducks are truly fascinating creatures in our world today.
I’m going to tell you all about my favorite one: the Wood Duck. Aix sponsa, commonly known as the Wood Duck, is a partially migratory species of perching duck often found in North America. Their habitats tend to be marshy or wooded. You will often see them in beaver ponds, wooded marshes, streams, and small lakes. They stick to wet areas with trees or lots of cattails.
Wood ducks have a unique shape. They have a boxy, crested head, a thin neck, and a long broad tail. They hold their head high when they fly, and sometimes bob them. Males have bright green heads with white stripes going from their eyes to their crests. They have bright red eyes and orange beaks, with a chestnut breast and buffy sides. The females are less iconic, being mostly gray-brown with a speckled white breast. Juvenile Wood Ducks look similar to females.
Their diet mostly consists of plants such as acorns, berries, wild rice, and different grasses. They also sometimes eat snails, insects, and various kinds of small fish. They nest in trees near water, sometimes directly over water, or possibly a mile or more away. In an article about Wood Ducks from All About Birds, it talks about how the ducklings get out of the tree. The article reads, “After hatching, the ducklings jump down from the nest tree and make their way to the water. The mother calls them to her, but does not help them in any way. The ducklings may jump from heights of over 50 feet without injury” (allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wood_Duck).
Unfortunately, natural cavities necessary for nesting are scarce, so people will often build nesting boxes for them. If nesting boxes are built too close together, the females will lay eggs in other female’s nests. Woods ducks are especially unique, since they are the only North American duck that regularly produces two broods in one year.
If you live near a pond, swamp, or other body of water, and want to attract a breeding pair, you should consider building a nesting box in your yard. You must make sure you put it up well before the breeding season, and attach guards to prevent predators from raiding eggs. Their nesting period ranges from late April to early August.
Their nests should be from six to 30 feet off the ground, and the boxes should lean slightly forward in order to shed rain. According to an article about how to build the boxes, you must install the box facing water and build a ladder for the ducks to get in. The article reads, “Make sure the box has a fledgling ladder under the entrance hole. This can be a strip of 1/4 inch mesh hardware cloth stapled to the inside, or you can roughen a one-foot-deep section under the entrance hole with a chisel so the young ducklings can get a toehold while climbing up to the entrance” (nestwatch.org).
Wood Ducks have an especially unique behavior, being among some of the only waterfowl to perch and nest in trees. With their broad tail and short, broad wings, they are extra maneuverable, which makes them more comfortable flying through woods. When walking, they act similar to pigeons, jerking their heads back and forth. They also tend to be in smaller groups, fewer than 20.
Finally, their calls are unique and make them easier to identify. When disturbed or taking flight, females make an “oo-eek oo-eek” sound. Males make a high-pitched thin rising and falling whistle noise. So next time you or your family are out on a walk, take a listen out on the water to hear or see a familiar bobbing head.