Aix sponsa

Aix sponsa Wood Duck, no subspecies, is a small, brightly colored, tree-dwelling bird native to North America.

The New Northern Forest Mandarin duck is related to the Mandarin duck, and is recognized as the most beautiful water duck in North America, because it is only found on the North American continent, so it is called the North American Mandarin duck. Aix Sponsa, the scientific name of the Mandarin duck, refers to the beautiful water bird like a bride. They are called Wood ducks because they build their nests in holes in trees. They are one of the few water ducks that can fly to the trees to nest. At the same time, they also have different feeding habits from diving ducks. Therefore, scientists classify the forest Mandarin duck as an arboreal bird, which is a more advanced and successful bird.

The species usually occurs in pairs, but in the fall and winter, there are sometimes groups of a few to dozens of individuals, and large groups of up to thousands of individuals. The flying force is weak, and the speed is not as fast as other ducks, making a light and sharp whistle while flying. Also good at swimming and diving, and diving ability is very strong, both in the surface of the water to feed, but also to dive underwater to feed, and sometimes to the water to forage for grass on the ground. The food is mainly plant food such as rice, crop seedlings, grasses and aquatic plants, the chicks feed on aquatic insects and other small organisms, and the adults like to eat acorns or other nuts.

The breeding season is in January or February, while northern populations usually start in March or April. Nests are generally built in tree holes, and the average number of eggs per nest is about 6-16. The incubation period is about 25 to 37 days, and the young can leave the nest with the female the next day, and can jump to the ground from the nest as high as 15 meters.

The Mandarin duck's biggest enemy is humans. Between 1972 and 1982, a total of 1.23 million Mandarin ducks were killed by hunters. As of 2008, a total of two to three million mandarin ducks were still living in the Neocene, but they still faced the threat of increasing loss of forests and wetlands. Despite the success of the artificial nest breeding program, the ducks still need healthy and safe feeding grounds, especially mature lakeside forests and pollution-free wetlands. Other natural predators include foxes, snakes, minks, raccoons, and woodpeckers. Snapping turtles also eat ducklings.

Listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN) for 2020 ver 3.1 - Not Threatened (LC).

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It is distributed in Canada, Cuba, Mexico, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and the United States.
Passing Bird: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Bonaire, Saint Eustatius and Saba, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Denmark, Dominica, Haiti, Iceland, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Martin (Netherlands), Spain (Canary Islands), Turks and Caicos Islands.
Summer Mandarin ducks can be found in several southeastern Canadian provinces. They usually nest in mature broad-leaved forests such as poplars and maples in ponds, river marshes, or inhospitable lakesides. Tree holes up to 5 to 25 meters from the ground, due to a large number of deforestation, trees more than 40 centimeters in diameter are becoming less and less, and people usually have tree holes or dead trees as waste, arbitrarily cut down, resulting in forest ducks can not find natural tree holes (usually pecked by red-crowned wo

The length of the forest Mandarin duck is 47-54 cm, the wingspan is 66-75 cm, the male weight is 544-862 grams, the female weight is 499-862 grams, the female and the male feather color difference is large, the male duck is bright (especially in the breeding season), the female duck is simple. Both males and females have distinctive crests (summer feathers without crests). The male has two longitudinal white stripes on the crest, a purple and green head, a reddish-brown chest with white spots, and bronze ribs. The female has white eye rings on the feathers, a coal-gray body plumage, a white throat, and white stripes on the breast. The plumage of the young bird is black at the top and white at the bottom, which is quite different from the yellow baby bird of the average duck.
Tarsal scale peltate; The male trachea had asymmetrical bulges. The two cry different, usually different clothing and behavior; Short duration of spousal relationship and family life; Moult twice a year; The mal