Australian Wood Ducks with Ducklings
Like 1 Dislike 0 Published on 3 Jan 2017
Australian Wood Ducks with Ducklings
This handsome duck often breeds near our dams. This video shows first a male and female Australian Wood Duck with 10 ducklings on our large dam. The start shows the family on the east side, next you see the same group on the west side from a different camera.
Lastly you can see another Wood Duck family which is on our small dam. All footage, from both dams, is from early December 2016. The males can be distinguished from the females by their red/brown head and necks.
Australian Wood Ducks are a common sight around dams and in lower paddocks; they are more grazers than water-feeders. They feed on grass, other green herbage, grain and insects on the ground. Wood Ducks sometimes form post-breeding flocks of 10 to 50 or more.
The Australian Wood Duck has benefited from farm clearing and provision of dams. They nest in large, shallow tree-hollows, often far from water. The very young ducklings often have to travel a long distance to reach water.