Profile
In flight
Waterfowl
Wood Duck
Aix sponsa
- common
- 48 km/h
- Starter
- Least Concern
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- Population
- No precise current global IUCN mature-individuals figure could be independently corroborated (BirdLife DataZone factsheet renders as JS-only 'Loading...' placeholders even via reader-proxy; iucnredlist.org species page and search both 403/404). Population is well-documented as large, widespread, and recovered/growing across North America — e.g. Michigan alone hosts an estimated 100,000 birds (Wikipedia/Cornell) — with regional breeding estimates running into the millions.
- Habitat
- Wooded swamps, shallow lakes, sluggish streams, overgrown beaver ponds, and wood-fringed freshwater marshes; nests in tree cavities (natural holes 2-60 ft high, entrance as small as 4 inches across) or nest boxes near water
- Fun fact
- Wood Duck ducklings leave the tree-cavity nest by jumping/climbing out of the entrance (using clawed feet) about a day after hatching — nests can be up to 60 feet high — bouncing off water or soft leaf litter unharmed on their way to join their mother.
- Range
- North America — breeds across the eastern United States and adjacent southern Canada and along the Pacific coast of the US and Canada, plus western Mexico; northern populations migrate south for winter into the southern/eastern US and Mexico, while much of the Pacific Flyway and southeastern US population is resident year-round; occasional escapee records in Great Britain/Western Europe
- Diet
- Omnivorous dabbler — predominantly plant material (acorns, seeds, berries, aquatic vegetation such as smartweed and duckweed) supplemented with insects, snails, and other invertebrates; feeds by dabbling at the surface or grazing on land, and can crush acorns swallowed whole using its gizzard
- Size
- 0.51 m
- Wingspan
- 0.7 m
- Lifespan
- 15 years
