Q & A

This page is intended to provide answers to common questions about wood ducks and related subjects. We'll do our best to provide useful answers and suggestions. We may even publish your question and answer on this page.

The Tom Tubbs box is no longer available or recommended. In a shaded spot in the northern part of the wood duck's range early in the season, they worked fine. Unfortunately, in direct sunlight -- even in Minnesota on a typically warm June day, they became way to hot for both the eggs and the hen. In the South, it was even worse.

About ten years ago, I did a controlled temperature study, using temperature probes in ten different types of boxes (several more the second year.) the Tom Tubbs and a sheet metal box tied for the worst resistance to heat. On a 90 degree F. early June day in Minnesota, both of these boxes registered 118 degrees, both at egg level and hen level.

Eggs die at about 106 Degrees and the hen will abandon before that level is reached. Painting the tom Tubbs ‘white’ helped somewhat, but not enough. No insulation is built into this design.

The best box for resisting excessive heat during incubation turned out to be a natural wood box, which never got hotter inside than 99 degrees while in direct sun. PVC, Argon canisters, insulated plastic (DU type), and even plywood boxes were inferior to natural wood boxes in this respect. Painting each of these man-made materials white (or leaving PVC boxes white) helped these boxes to resist heat build-up, as did drilling ventilation holes.

This winter I finally built two wood duck houses. My back yard has many trees that meet right next to a pond/wetland.
I mounted one house on a tree about 75 ft. from the house and about 20 ft. from the pond. I would like to mount the other house in or near the edge of the pond/wetland on a pole or pipe but I am not sure how to go about doing that. Any advice? Also how far from the house mounted on the tree should other house be located? Is their a recommended direction that a wood duck house should face? When do wood ducks start to nest in this area of Minnesota?

This is the perfect time to get your new wood duck houses mounted. The wood ducks start to return now, to the southern part of the State of Minnesota. If the pond you have is conducive for wood ducks, distance from the water is not an issue. My eight wood duck houses are one quarter mile from water and most of them are used every year. Woodies have been known to nest up to a mile away from the pond they will eventually use.

Placing the nest boxes near each other is not an issue either, for wood ducks are not often territorial. Facing a nest box in a certain direction may, or may not be an issue. I have had success with nest boxes facing all four directions. However, I now feel that a clear flight path may be more of an incentive. You might avoid facing the houses due west or northwest if storms are a concern.

Now, for yard placement, Dr. Roger Strand, of the Wood Duck Society, has written a fine article on wood duck nest box installation and placement. It is on this website. Click on the link ‘Best Practices' and read Roger’s explanation of a suggested installation, for a wood duck nest box. The Wood Duck Society has adopted Roger’s plan and it has been very successful. The two most critical points being: 1. the nest box does not need to be ten feet or more off the ground, or up a tall tree. 2. A ‘cone guard’ must be installed around the pole to protect the hen from predators. If the hen is killed during incubation, you have defeated your purpose. Good luck in your endeavor.

I live in Maryland and we check our wood duck boxes after the first frost, usually in late October. We have found several nests with many eggs, un-hatched, with small holes in them. The insides of the eggs apparently have been eaten, we don't know when. There is a lot of 'down' in the nests and there are no apparent hatched eggs. Any ideas on what this could be? A dump nest? Other?

Dear Ralph,
    Thanks for your question regarding the small holes in the eggs found in abandoned wood duck nests.   Small holes in the side of an egg (anywhere from about 1/8" to 1/4" wide) are the result of avian predation. On my units in West-Central Minnesota, the most common culprit seems to be the Northern Flicker, but other members of the woodpecker family (e.g. red-headed and red-belliedwoodpeckers) can also depredate wood duck eggs.
    My breakfast window looks out in three directions to about twenty boxes. Occasionally, I can observe a flicker entering a box which I know contains an active wood duck nest, one with a new egg being laid each day. The flicker seems to know it too, enjoying its egg breakfast by uncoiling its tongue into the egg through the "poke hole" drilled into the side of the egg. In 2003, in a box by my barn, a hen finally abandoned her nest after laying eight eggs, and having them systematically depredated by a flicker.
    In the Proceedings of the 1988 North American Wood Duck Symposium, Wilkens et al., as a part of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service study, "collected" a number of red-bellied woodpeckers leaving wood duck nests in
Mississippi. Egg yolk found in the woodpeckers' esophagi confirmed that they were using eggs as food.
    Starlings (and sometimes woodpeckers) will also poke very small holes in duck eggs in an apparent attempt to discourage the duck when competing for the box as a nest site.
    Woodpeckers are protected birds and, in my view, their interactions with wood ducks and their eggs are just part of the grand scheme of things. Starlings, being an alien species in North America, are not protected and can be trapped or otherwise legally eliminated from your box unit.

Roger Strand

How can you discourage Starlings from taking over a wood duck house? I've had wood ducks nest in the yard, but the last few years, the Starlings have literally jumped on the wood duck hen as she tried to enter the nest box. Is there some sort of trap I could use?

Dear Jack,
Thanks for your starling question. Starlings can sometimes effectively wipe out Wood Duck production in a local area. Starlings are alien to North America, and are not a protected species. Traps specially designed to fit inside a wood duck house have been found to be very effective. One tried and tested model is manufactured by a Wood Duck Society member from southern Wisconsin, George Wellenkotter. He is an expert, and lives in an area where starlings are a major problem. I called him and he is still selling his traps for $22.50, plus shipping.

Contact him at: Nesting Boxes Mfg. - 309 Randolph Street,- Edgerton, WI 53534.- Phone #:(608) 884-3678.

On my own unit in West Central Minnesota, starlings have presented only occasional problems, nearly all related to boxes in our yard area. In retirement, I've used an effective but more time consuming method of control. This method utilizes .22 caliber birdshot ammunition fired from a tent blind set up 20 feet or less from the box (with birdshot you must be very close.) Just enter the blind before dawn and wait for the offending starlings to arrive. Then wait for them to take their guard-duty perch on the edge of the hole. The birdshot won't really harm the box, in contrast to a blast from a shotgun.
Good luck with your starling trapping and/or hunting exploits.

Hi Don,

Good question. I have monitored the nest boxes in my yard for a number of years and have learned an easy method.

A hen wood duck usually lays one egg per day until her clutch is complete. The normal incubation period for a wood duck is usually 29 -30 days.

You will have to get an accurate egg count and note the date sometime during the egg laying stage, before the hen starts her incubation. For instance, if you checked a vacated nest box some afternoon and found five eggs, and the date was April 10^th, mark your calendar on the 10^th with five eggs.

In a few weeks, when the hen is incubating, you will need another egg count. Watch for the hen to leave for her morning or evening feeding, then re-check the nest box and get a total egg count. If the total egg count was twelve eggs, and knowing that during the egg laying process a hen usually lays one egg per day, add seven days [for the seven additional eggs] to the calendar you previously marked on April 10th. Using the new date of April 17^th, you can add 30 days [incubation time] for the estimated hatch – which would be May 17^th.

Now, due to the fact that wood duck hens will occasionally 'miss’ laying an egg on any given day during the egg laying process, the hatch date is just an estimate, but it will get you close. Near the hatch date, monitor the nest box more closely and re-check it when the hen leaves for her evening feed. On a day when you find some of the ducklings hatched- you will know that the entire brood will leave the following morning. At this point, avoid further contact with the ducklings or the hen. The hen and her brood will usually jump between 7:00 AM and 9:00 AM that following day, but the 'jump' can extend anytime up to noon –especially, if the hen feels threatened from predators or if the weather is inclement.

Stephen M. Straka

President, Wood Duck Society

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Dear Charles,
    The standard reference for management of wood ducks remains the 588 page textbook written by Frank Bellrose and Daniel Holm, entitled: 'Ecology and Management of the Wood Duck'. It is a Wildlife Management Institute book, and was published by Stackpole Books in 1994.
    When I last checked (June, 2004) it was available (by regular mail only) from the Wildlife Management Institute: 1146 19th St. NW; Suite 700; Washington, DC 20036. Phone: 202-371-1808. Fax: 202-408-5059. The sale price at that time was $20 + $2 shipping and handling. Hopefully, this is still the case. If not, perhaps they can refer you to an alternate source. Their website address is: www.wildlifemanagementinstitue.org
    I know of no serious wood duck hobbyist or professional manager who does not use this great resource to the fullest extent. My understanding is that it is no longer in print. You should exhaust every means in order to obtain a copy.

I see wood duck hens trying to fly into the opening on a nest box, but sometimes they fail. Their head is partially in, but they don't all the way in. I don't know if they try again. I am wondering if a perch , a few inches from the box and parallel to the front, would help. I have seen none in any of the designs. Thanks.

My observations also include many similar episodes, where the hen briefly pokes her head inside the box while fluttering her wings outside, then departs without entering the box. However, the next day either the same hen or another one may enter the same box without difficulty.

If the hole is at least 3" X 4", I believe there is no need for a perch on the front of the box. It's often stated that a perch only assists a would-be predator, as it investigates the box. I don't believe this is much of a factor in that regard as long as you have a good predator guard (the metal cone guard is the best) below the box and the box is mounted on a pole. After all, the basic idea is to keep climbing mammalian predators from reaching the box in the first place. if you have a good set-up, as I've described, it therefore is no real disadvantage to placing a perch below the hole -- it's just that it's not necessary.

It's quite common for the hen to flutter in front of the box, as you described, and then depart. One good reason for this is that there may be another hen in the box already. I see this with my in-box cameras on a fairly regular basis. The hen inside commonly opens her bill and hisses in immediate response to another hen landing on top of the box or fluttering in front of it. The fluttering hen outside is quickly aware of this and usually, but not always, chooses to depart rather than enter.

One other thought. Occasionally, when people put up a wood duck house one year, but don't clean it for the next season, a squirrel or other critter might have moved in. If a wood duck hen tried to enter the 'occupied' nest box and found a squirrel, she probably wouldn't stay.

Actually anytime before the wood ducks’ spring arrival is fine. This will vary depending on what part of the country you live in. I however, usually clean out my duck houses immediately after a hen leaves with her clutch in the spring. [I monitor each of my eight houses very closely during nesting season] Sometimes after an early spring hatch, another hen will start a new clutch in that same box, soon after the first hen has departed with her brood. Usually by mid July, all of my boxes are empty and I clean them all. I will also do a quick check around March 1^stthe following spring, to make sure I don’t have any unexpected guests from the winter.

I am planning to install a wood duck house, and I'm considering mounting it on the same pole on which my Purple Martin houses are mounted. The Martin house pole is located in the water of a river about 75 feet from the shore and has a predator guard to prevent snakes climbing the pole. Would it be ok to mount the wood duck house on that pole with the box opening about 5 feet above the water? I don't know if the wood ducks and Martins would get along so close together. What's your opinion?

I have no hesitation in stating that a Wood Duck nest box mounted on your Martin pole would work out just fine FOR THE WOOD DUCK. Unlike their conflicts with European Starlings, woodies appear to easily demonstrate dominance over members of the swallow family whenever needed.

However, when I discussed your question with a local Martin hobbyist of long experience, he expressed hesitancy in suggesting that your Martin pole should be doing double-duty. Perhaps in Florida, Martins are easier to attract and hold than in Minnesota, but his experience would suggest that Martins are just too spooky and might abandon if a duck was flying in and out of the a box on their pole. Since we can't ask the Martins, he does agree that his opinion lies within the realm of speculation. He just wouldn't want to take a chance on losing the colony. You might consider separate poles for each.

SNAKES: You are the expert here since it's too cold in most of Minnesota for the type that raid Wood Duck boxes. However, the experts in South Carolina (SC Waterfowl Society Wood Duck Project) use the same three foot
diameter metal cone guard that we do to foil rat snakes and others. I highly recommend and firmly believe that “predator guards” are a must for continued success with land or water-based nest boxes. {click on "Best Practices" on our web site for details}

A few years ago, I helped this man develop a land-based Wood Duck box unit on his large lawn next to one of our Minnesota lakes. He now has seven boxes, and all seven had successful duckling jumps in '05. Pertinent to your question, one of his boxes is on a separate pole just twenty yards from his active, main Martin box.