But wood ducks are notorious for what is called "dumping." Females mate, then use another hen's nest for laying. They skip nest-building and incubation, letting the designated hen take responsibility.

Seeds, fruits, plants and insects are on the menu. Home is where the hen is Adult wood ducks search for mates in fall and pair up by midwinter for a one-year partnership.

Once a hole is chosen, the hen will lay 10-12 eggs, which will hatch about 30 days later. Wood duck chicks are precocial — they can move about almost immediately.

The wood duck drake is by far the most handsome of our American ducks followed by the pintail, a distant second. It’s always a pleasure to photograph the wood duck drake and hen when they arrive ...

The Wood Duck Society, a Minnesota-based nonprofit that promotes education and conservation of wood ducks, recommends a procedure for checking the nest box when the hen is out feeding to determine ...

Wood ducks don’t bring in nesting material, so it is up to us to provide clean nesting material each spring. Each box should have about 2 to 3 inches of wood chips in the bottom.

Such as: How many eggs, on average, does a wood-duck hen lay? How many of these eggs hatch successfully? Will a wood duck that is hatched in a box in Krueger's yard return to the yard?

A wood duck hen looks at a photographer while she incubates her eggs in a nest box at the Cache Creek Nature Preserve. A new study by a Preserve biologist has found that wood ducks had a ...

Of all the pretty birds and waterfowl to see, the wood duck is the champion of this beauty pageant.

A trail camera captured wood duck ducklings “raining” down onto the forest floor in Minnesota. Screengrab from video shared by Minnesota Fish & Wildlife.

Critters This Texas Couple Helps Hatch Hundreds of Baby Wood Ducks Bob and Donna McFarland have handed out 177 nest boxes for the colorful species.

The DNR post said the wood duck hen is outfitted with telemetry equipment, so researchers can track her and her brood. Biologists continue to study wood ducks' preferences in nesting trees (hens ...