WOOD DUCK 

 ( Alx sponsa ) 



[FR: Canard carolin, GE: Brautente , SP: Pato del bosque de Carolina, Huyoyo] 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION 



An endemic North American species, the Wood Duck breeds primarily in east- 

 ern North America with the western limits of this part of the range extending 

 from central eastern Saskatchewan to southeast Manitoba thence south to north- 

 eastern Nebraska, eastern Missouri, extreme southeastern Oklahoma, and eastern 

 Texas. They breed east through southern Ontario and Quebec to northern Maine, 

 Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island and south through the eastern United 

 States to the Gulf coast, Florida, and Cuba. A disjunct population breeds in 

 the Pacific Northwest from southern British Columbia to northern Idaho and Ore- 

 gon and south through eastern Oregon and California to southern California 

 (Palmer 1976b). In winter, only the southern parts of the range are occupied. 

 Thus, the species is a common permanent resident in the southeastern states, and 

 an influx of northern birds takes place in winter (Map 7). Estimated breeding 

 populations in the states on the southeastern coast total 289,000 birds (Bell- 

 rose 1976). The breeding habitat is primarily wooded bottomlands and swamps. 

 Some birds occur in tidal estuaries and protected coastal marshes in winter 

 (Palmer 1976b). 



Because of excessive hunting and habitat destruction, the Wood Duck popula- 

 tion was greatly reduced at the turn of the century. A moratorium on hunting, 

 following passage of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and intensive management, 

 including the placement of artificial nesting boxes, permitted the species to 

 regain much of its former abundance (Bellrose 1976). 



SUSCEPTIBILITY TO OIL POLLUTION 



There is no information available on the history of oiling in this species. 

 However, since the Wood Duck is an interior species largely restricted to fresh- 

 water situations with quiet water, it probably seldom encounters oiling from off- 

 shore development. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



1980 



DiGiulio, R. T. and R. B. Hamilton. 1980. Utilization of agricultural wetlands 

 in a Mississippi River bottomland by Wood Duck and Hooded Merganser broods. 

 Proc. 33rd Annu. Conf . Southeastern Assoc. Fish & Wildl. Agencies: 81-87. 



Drobney, R. D. 1980. Reproductive bioenergetics of Wood Ducks. Auk 97: 480- 

 490. 



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