Wood Duck
Female Male
Description.—Smaller than Mallard; both sexes with crest, smaller in female than in male. Male: Head and crest rich glossy green, with violet and blue reflections; a line from bill over eye, a line along side of crest, and other lines in flowing feathers of crest, white; throat, a band from it up cheeks, and a wide band at nape, white; breast and an area at either side of base of tail, chestnut, the breast spotted with white; band on breast in front of wing, white; sides buffy, finely barred with black, the long flank-feathers tipped with striking bands of black and white; back greenish brown; scapulars blackish, glossed with steel-blue and greenish; speculum steel-blue tipped with white; primaries tipped with greenish blue; tail blue-black; eyes red; bill dusky, white, and red; feet yellowish. Female: Area below and back of eye, and throat, white; crown brown, glossed with purplish; sides of head ashy brown; breast and sides grayish, streaked and mottled with brownish; belly white; back olive-brown, glossed with greenish; the inner primaries tipped with greenish blue. The immature resembles the adult female. The male in eclipse plumage, which he assumes during late summer, is similar to the female. Length: 18½ inches.
Range in Pennsylvania.—Fairly common as a migrant and summer resident throughout, arriving in early April and remaining until November 1. Commoner than most species of this family along the smaller streams.
Nest.—In a cavity in a tree. Eggs: 7 to 15, buffy white.
The male Wood Duck, thought by many to be the most beautiful American bird, is a gorgeous creature. It is little wonder that an Indian legend tells us that a little gray duck, while on a search for happiness, swam into the end of the rainbow and came forth the brilliant creature we now call the Wood Duck.
Agile almost as a perching bird, these ducks run about on the ground, snapping up insects, or swim buoyantly in quiet pools near the woodland they have selected as their summer home. In a cavity in a tree, sometimes at considerable distance from the water and at quite a height from the ground, the down-lined nest is built.
The young birds, it is said, clamber out of the nest and fall to the ground as best they can, without being helped by either parent. Surely, young birds which survive such an ordeal are prepared for the later battles of life!
Wood Ducks are fond of acorns and of the seeds of many aquatic plants. The young birds, like the adults, are amazingly agile and run about like young chickens, bright-eyed, attractive, and so small as to be fairly ludicrous as they race into the water for a swim!
REDHEAD
Nyroca americana (Eyton)
Description.—Head high, rising abruptly from bill; both sexes with tendency toward fluffy, round crest. Male: Entire head bright rufous, glossed with purplish; lower neck, all around, breast, and upper back, blackish; rest of back and scapulars finely barred with wavy black and white lines of equal width; wing-coverts brownish gray; wings gray, without a noticeable speculum; upper and under tail-coverts black; belly white, lower belly more or less barred like back; sides barred as in back; eyes yellow; bill blue-gray. Female: Upperparts dark grayish brown, darker on wings, all feathers more or less margined with buffy or ashy; neck buffy, somewhat mottled; breast and sides gray-brown, washed or margined with buffy; belly and under tail-coverts somewhat suffused with buffy; eyes brown; bill blackish, with blue-gray band at end. Length: 19 inches.
Range in Pennsylvania.—Fairly common as a migrant, noticeably along the larger waterways, from March 1 to April 25 and from October 10 to November 15. Sometimes occurs in great flocks.
