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Birds @ Wings
American Crow
Bald Eagle
Belted Kingfisher
Blue Jay
Canada Goose
Common Loon
Golden Eagle
Great Blue Heron
Great Horned Owl
Lewis' Woodpecker
Osprey
Pine Grosbeak
Red-tailed Hawk
Rufous Hummingbird
Steller's Jay
Swans
Warbling
Verio
Western Meadowlark
Wood Duck
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Wood Duck
 Recognition
The male Wood Duck is the most beautiful of North American ducks. His eyes
are bright red, his crested head a dark iridescent green and purple with a
white strip across his head and around his neck. His bill is a
multicolored pattern of red, yellow, black & white. White speckles adorn
his burgundy
chest. The female mostly brown has a distinctive white teardrop-shaped eye
patch.
Haunts
The Wood Duck earned its name from its favored habitat: wooded wetlands
with calm shallow water. It is North America's only perching duck. Chances
of seeing Wood Ducks are good at the Radium Hot Springs mill pond.
Schedule
Wood Duck pairs begin arriving from their wintering grounds in the latter
part of April and begin searching for suitable nesting sites. Once
incubation begins, males leave the area for communal roosting sites.
Starting in June, the males undergo an eclipse molt while they grow new
flight feathers. This takes about 6 weeks and is finished by August. Back
at the nest, the eggs hatch after 30 days of incubation and within 24
hours the chicks leap from the nest, falling as much as 50 feet, they land
unharmed. Their southern migration begins in late August and all are gone
by early October.
Field Notes
Every year the Pileated Woodpecker makes a new nesting cavity for itself.
The old one is often taken over by Wood Ducks. Man also plays an important
role in maintaining Wood Duck populations. The Windermere District Rod and
Gun Club and Columbia Basin Compensation Program have recently built and
put up about 45 nest boxes for Wood Ducks in the wetland between Radium
Hot Springs and Brisco.
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