Wood Duck

This is the only species in this genus.

The wood duck is approx 46cm-51cmlong.

An adult male wood duck

This is a perching duck and will perch in trees.

They live throughout Western Australia including the arid areas.

Tracks

They have the typical webbed duck foot track.

This skull was 6.8cmL x 2.6cmW and was photographed at the Western Australia Museum.

Go to our Wildlife Tales pages and read more about the Wood/Maned Duck

Scats

It has typical duck scats.

This duck nests in the hollows of trees, or on top of pergola's in backyards. When the young ducklings hatch they have to leap to the ground where they feed themselves but stay with the parents for protection. Wood ducks pair but can also live together in groups.

The young wood duck we reared in captivity loved the bath and would torpedo around under water for 20 minutes until it got tired.

A young male wood duck one week week old

What does it eat?

It mostly forages at night for green shoots and some seeds although I have seen them foraging during the day as well and they probably eat a small amount of insects too.