Wood Duck Quiz By Cindy Owsley

How well do you know the wood duck? In this quiz the author shares what she has learned after beginning a monitoring wood duck project in 2011. Last year she had 172 wood ducks jump from 12 boxes on a 38-acre habitat project which has a shallow water wetland and pond. Cindy enjoys her work to improve the nesting success of a duck believed be on the verge extermination in the late 1800s to early 1900s.

1. Wood ducks are the only cavity-nesting duck (Family – Anatidae) in Illinois.

True

55.9%

False

44.1%

2. Checking an active wood duck box will cause the hen to abandon it.

True

13.7%

False

86.3%

3. Boxes must be mounted at least 15 feet high in a tree close to water.

True

38.6%

False

61.4%

4. European starlings (8.5 inch body length and up to 16 inch wingspan) can outcompete wood ducks (18.5 inch body length and up to 30 inch wingspan) for nest boxes.

True

85.5%

False

14.5%

5. It is not uncommon for several hens to lay eggs in the same box.

True

86.4%

False

13.6%

6. Wood ducks:

All of the above.

65.6%

a, c and d.

22.8%

a. Pluck their downy breast feathers.

5.1%

b. Don’t begin incubation until the entire clutch is laid.

4.4%

d. Often bury the first few eggs in nesting materials.

1.3%

c. Will fight with another duck in nest box competition

0.5%

7. Most birds, including wood ducks, incubate their eggs for around 14 days.

True

60.4%

False

39.6%

8. Typically, wood duck ducklings jump within a day of hatching.

True

72.8%

False

27.2%

9. The use of artificial nest boxes to enhance wood duck populations came into popularity in the 1970s after a Louisiana study documented a high rate of success of ducks nesting in cypress boxes erected in trees.

True

90.1%

False

9.9%

10. When a suspected predator approaches the nest box, a hen sitting on a clutch of eggs will flush and pretend to have a broken wing and to panic.

True

47.4%

False

52.6%

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