Black Ducks may linger until early June (Jackson and Cooley 1978a) and a 

 few individuals may summer in the state. Burleigh (1944) noted that preferred 

 habitat was salt water along the coast. 



Alabama About a dozen pairs of Black Ducks breed at Wheeler NWR in the 

 northern part of Alabama, but the species occurs in the state primarily as a 

 common to abundant migrant and winter resident. Along the coast, the Black 

 Duck has been recorded from late October through mid-April, and a pair has sum- 

 mered there (Imhof 1976b). Winter surveys from 1950-1960 gave an average count 

 of some 700 birds, but the counts from the Tennessee Valley area averaged 4,000 

 (Geis et al. 1971). Recent winter populations at Wheeler Refuge are of about 

 2,500 birds but have peaked at 8,000 (Imhof 1976b). Goldsberry et al. (1980) 

 reported 7,200 on the 1975 winter waterfowl survey. 



Louisiana The Black Duck winters in Louisiana only in small numbers. Low- 

 ery (1974) noted that it arrives in early October and remains until late March. 

 From 1950 to 1960, an average of 6,200 was seen on winter surveys in the south- 

 ern portion of the state (Geis et al. 1971). Wintering populations in Louisi- 

 ana have evidently declined drastically, as none were reported on the 1975 win- 

 ter waterfowl survey (Goldsberry et al. 1980). 



Texas Black Ducks winter in Texas from September to May and are uncommon 

 to rare in the eastern part of the state; they were formerly more common (Ober- 

 holser 1974). Winter surveys (1950-1960) indicated an average of about 3,000 

 birds in the extreme northeastern part of the state (Geis et al. 1971). None 

 were reported on the 1975 winter waterfowl survey (Goldsberry et al. 1980). 



SYNOPSIS OF PRESENT DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE 



Breeding Black Ducks breed in northeastern North America from northeastern 

 Minnesota east to New Brunswick and Newfoundland, south to northeastern Iowa, 

 and then east to northern Ohio and Pennsylvania and south along the coast to 

 central North Carolina. The greatest breeding densities in Canada are in the 

 forested areas of the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence, and Acadian areas (Reed 1968 

 in Bellrose 1976); in the United States these ducks breed primarily in the 

 coastal marshes (Bellrose 1976). 



Average pre-hunting season populations of the Black Duck, in 1952-1960, 

 were estimated at 3,740,000 birds, 1,551,000 of which were adults (Geis et al. 

 1971). More recent information is unavailable. 



Winter Black Ducks winter primarily from eastern Minnesota south to the 

 northeastern coast of Texas, thence east to Nova Scotia and northern Florida 

 (Geis et al. 1971, Bellrose 1976, Palmer 1976a). The January 1976 winter water- 

 fowl survey indicated that a majority (64.5%) of the U.S. winter population of 

 about 429,000 birds was along the Atlantic Flyway; almost all the rest wintered 

 in the Mississippi Flyway (Larned et al. 1980). States harboring the largest 

 wintering populations in January 1975 were New Jersey (81,910 counted), Ohio 

 (41,000), Tennessee (34,300), and Maine (30,770) (Goldsberry et al. 1980). The 

 total number killed in the United States during the 1975-76 hunting season was 

 estimated to be about 361,000 birds (Larned et al. 1980). 



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