‘Woodies’ get feisty during mating season in east Idaho

Last Monday while looking for some woodies to photograph, I was watching three woodie couples feeding along the edge of a canal that had started to melt. Nine more dropped into a small pocket of open water; eight were males and one was a female. The “single” males began displaying for the female and chasing each other around but they were a long way from me to see what was really happening. After half an hour I headed home, hoping that overnight, more ice would melt and/or the group would work closer to where I could watch them.

I got my wish on Tuesday morning. I was prepared to spend three or four hours watching the area and found the numbers of them had increased and more of the ice had disappeared. A saucy female was there with her intended beau, and as they swam across the water, she sounded her “availability” call. One by one, 11 unattached males followed them with one of them trying hard to separate the couple.

The dominate male wood duck tried to control the female where she went, but she had a mind of her own and appeared to enjoy the attention of the other males. After going back and forth four times, the dominate male was tired of it; he had had enough. He turned and charged, jabbing the aggressive male in the breast as it tried to leap over the charge. A three-minute fight was on.

All the splashing, tail grabbing, wing beating brought the procession to a halt with none of the other males approaching the female. After the dominate male tried to drown the aggressor, he swam over to the female, and she gave him a snuggle. Wood ducks can be very affectionate, but this romance did not last long, ten minutes later she went back to her old tricks. After announcing her availability only seven males showed up but kept their distance.

A quick trip out there on Wednesday morning found the same shenanigans happening. I don’t know if the “dominate” male had changed or if they are now a nesting couple for this year, but there was still a saucy female getting attention from the boys.

Most woodies become a couple in January before they start their migration north from Mexico or the Southern States. A few of them will spend the whole year in some northern states including Idaho, but this flock appears to be a migrating group as there are no mature cottonwoods or nest boxes for them to nest in.

Wood ducks are cavity nesters and cannot chip out their own nests, so they rely on finding a hollow tree where a limb has fallen off to start a nest. Only rarely do they use old woodpeckers or squirrel nests. They also use human-made nest boxes in raising their young. A couple will hunt for a good nest site in the early morning and while the female goes inside to inspect it, the male will stand guard outside.

Females engage in “egg-dumping” where they will visit other Wood duck nest and lay eggs in them. This is called, “intraspecific brood parasitism,” and it is believed that about fifty per cent of nests contain eggs from at least two hens. Nests usually contain10 or 11 eggs and can be up to 50 above the ground.

I always enjoy watching these colorful birds each spring as they migrate through the area. This spring I have found them on the Henrys Fork and South Fork of the Snake River, the Teton River, on the ice at Market Lake, Mud Lake, Warm Slough, and area canals that hold water. Most of these are on private land where permission is needed to observe them.

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