📷 see File:Aix sponsa dis.PNG · CC BY-SA 3.0
📷 Kevin Cole from Pacific Coast, USA
📷 BS Thurner Hof
IUCN: Least Concern
Wood Duck
Aix sponsa
KingdomAnimalia›PhylumChordata›ClassAves›OrderAnseriformes›FamilyAnatidae›GenusAix
About
The male wood duck is among the most spectacular waterfowl, with an iridescent crested head, red eye, and white flank stripes. Unlike most ducks it perches in trees and nests in cavities, where ducklings leap to the ground the day after hatching. Market hunting had nearly eliminated it by 1900; hunting limits and thousands of nest boxes brought it back, a classic conservation success.
Key Facts
⛰Habitat Wooded swamps, beaver ponds, marshes, and river margins
🍃Diet Omnivore — seeds, acorns, fruit, aquatic insects, and snails
📏Size & Weight Body 47–54 cm; wingspan 66–73 cm
•weight 0.5–0.7 kg
⏳Lifespan 3–4 years wild
🗺Range North America east of the Rockies and along the Pacific coast; winters in Mexico and the Caribbean
BirdWaterbird
Key Facts
⛰Habitat Wooded swamps, beaver ponds, marshes, and river margins
🍃Diet Omnivore — seeds, acorns, fruit, aquatic insects, and snails
📏Size & Weight Body 47–54 cm; wingspan 66–73 cm
•weight 0.5–0.7 kg
⏳Lifespan 3–4 years wild
🗺Range North America east of the Rockies and along the Pacific coast; winters in Mexico and the Caribbean
Photo Credits
#1see File:Aix sponsa dis.PNG · CC BY-SA 3.0
#2Kevin Cole from Pacific Coast, USA · CC BY 2.0
#3BS Thurner Hof · CC BY-SA 3.0
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