The Migratory/Ornamental Waterfowl INFO Thread

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
6-12 years is average with 10 or so being a more common number. I have heard of a few old geriatrics up there in the teens but thats few and far between.
10 or so's a good # to count on

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

TREEDUCKS (whistler)

These are another one of my favorites (hey I like them all) and for some reason, not all that commonly kept??. To me the coolest thing about a treeduck is their vocalizations. They have some of the coolest whistling calls you'll ever hear and really liven up any collection.
This is a species where in all species both sexes are identically colored and for the most part have identical vocalizations, making vent sexing a must for them.
They come in 8 species, from the tiny , docile Javan, to the tall Aggressive Cuban, to the Eyton's with their long side plumes sticking up in the air(very cool looking). Of these, the Cuban, black bellied, and Fulvous are on the USFWS Permit section, all the others are considered foreign and free of permits.

In general, treeducks make fairly great community birds, they can be a little bossy at times and push other smaller birds out of their way, but that's usually all, just a peck, hey I'm coming threw move deal. The same cant be said for the Cubans, they can tend to be a little nasty toward smaller pen mates during breeding season, so do watch those.
As for breeding, treeducks are great prolific breeders, often laying heavy clutches of 12-20 eggs. They will lay multiple clutches with ease if you pull them for incubation. All species are ground nesters, so go by the same rules I stated in the teal section for them when it comes to nesting cover. I have noticed over the years, they dont tend to be super great brooders though, and often, especially younger birds, will just drop eggs where ever they are, so do keep an incubator running or broody hens ready for them.
I never trusted one enough to allow them to set their own. Tried it once on some white face and lost 18 eggs half way threw cause she decided she'd had enough I guess.

This is also another species that can be kept altogether and no big worries of cross breeding. I had 8 species in 1 pen for years , decade or so actually and never once got a cross out of them. Again, they can, they just dont if properly paired. These like most all species of migratory waterfowl are pretty much best kept in pairs. Multiple hens dont work well in most cases and can lead to mix species breeding in community pens.


For the most part, treeducks are a walker, not a swimmer and require less water than most duck to be happy. They will spend most of their day on the ground foraging and picking at stuff and will return to the water in the evening to roost. They are all tropical species as well, and are one of the very few species that do bare watching in northern climate cold winters. They can not take subzero temps. They will have to be in a barn or provided some form of heat if you get below the mid teens for any prolonged period of time, so bare that in mind. As for summer, if you can dish it out, they can take it when it comes to heat.
Feed them the same as any other dabbler species. And you are good to go with them.

 

[Matapatos]

Thanks a ton for the info! These are mostly ducks that I hunt and I have a very high respect for them. Beautiful birds and I give back to them whenever I can. Looks like I will go with the ring necks as they are very beautiful birds, and I plan on having 6 to 8 birds for a 100 gallon pond. At most, that is. The breeder I am going with will most likely have ring necks and will most likely not have any scaup this year. Thanks again!

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Shelducks

These are very beautiful birds, but not one of my favorites due to their attitudes. There are very few nice shelducks, actually the common, or European would be the only one I can advise on placing in a community pen. All the others are fairly aggressive and can only be housed with other aggressive species like the treeducks who will hold their own with them (just the larger species though, dont add javas to the pen).
They are very beautiful though, and most of the species are identically colored so this brings the topic of vent sexing being a must for them again. Paradise shelducks are not similarly colored, but the others all are. None are considered native to the US so no permits are required Federally to keep them.
There are like the treeducks, being that they spend the vast majority of the day on the ground instead of on water.
They reproduce with ease, usually the second year for most. My Europeans and ruddys would breed the first year, all the others were second.
These are the only species I know of that are in nature, burrow nesters. They will find abandoned animal burrows and lay in them. What I always did to simulate this for them was to take a 5 gallon bucket, drill holes in one side (for drainage) and bury it in the ground, hole side down, then fill it with nesting material. Best to do this on a hill or elevated area for water purposes.If you dont want to go to all that trouble, in captivity they will nest on the ground, I just liked to keep them natural, seemed to reproduce better that way There are very good mothers and aggressively protective of their young. Clutch size varies from species to species but averages 6-10.
And the make some of the cutest colored babies you'll ever see.
Most start to eat with easy, and should be brooded separately from other shyer ducklings.
These do bare watching in extremely cold winters. They can take it better than tree ducks, but are by and large a tropical species as well. For you northerners, you may want to have a spot in the barn for them in the worst of it. Here in the south, they are fine outdoors year round.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
No problem
I hunt them too. Cant beat having them in your back yard every day though!
Love to hear of giving back to them, they need it, and more dedicated breeders/keepers.
Yes the scaup are tuffer to keep and breed like I said, and when some one does have them they usually sell out quick because of this.
Ask him about the tufteds. They are very similar to scaup color wise, but have 2 long streamers coming off the back of this heads, thus the name, very nice birds!
Good luck finding what you are looking for. If you have nay trouble, Just ask, I can find them for you
Aubrey

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

OTHER DABBLERS

This section includes all other dabbler or puddle duck species including wood ducks, mandarins, all the pintails and widgeons, shovelers, gadwall and the like.
A vast majority of these are protected under the USFWS Permit section, depends on the species, but all native US birds are on it.
The majority of these species are ground nesters. Some like the wood duck and mandarin obviously are cavity nesters, but 90% or better arent and will nest in the same manner out lines in the teal ground nesting section above.
Most of these species are very easy to keep, actually the easiest. Most reproduce with ease, with quite a few of them being first year nesters.
They all pretty much handle both extremes of climate with relative ease, for the most part, no winter protection is needed.
The widegoen come in 3 species, American, Europena, and Chiloe, the chiloe stays in color year round and are sex similar. The American and European do not and are both Permit species. Both of these have VERY similarly colored hens, actually to the point of it being bets to band or mark them in some way to identify them one from the other.
They are very gentle ducks and do well in mixed pens.
The shoveler, which are very cool birds with their over sized spoon bills also come in 3 species, Northern, New Zealand, and Argentine Red.
They are fairly easy to maintain as well, the Northern is the only one protected in the states by the Federal permit. All are ground nesters. They lay very well after their second season, and are fun to watch on the water. They are specialised filter feeders in the wild, but do very well on normal prepared rations. The northern is the only commonly kept and reasonably priced, the other two are quite rare and pricey.
The pintails come in several species, Northern, Bahama, Chilean, red billed, etc.
They are about the same as the widgeons. No super special care is needed, all are ground nesters, though I have had Bahama's use boxes before. Most will lay their first season. I have had northern pintails cross breed with other species at times, but it's still a very rare occurrence, and I would say all are fine in a mixed collection. None are overly aggressive, and all are very attractive.

There are a vast array of possible species in this group, actually all the other species, teal, shelducks, treeduck , they are all in this class too. Your possibilities are tremendous with this group of waterfowl. And if you are new to the hobby, I highly recommend starting with dabblers of one type or another. They are the easiest to keep, feed, house, and breed. No extra special care is needed except for the few tropical species I mentioned in the winter. All are fairly great community pen birds. And they will get you addicted to the hobby for sure.

I will post more as I get time, but the next few sections will be getting into the harder to keep divers , sawbills, and sea ducks!

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

DIVERS


To me, these are the fun ones! Watching them dive around , especially is if you keep clean clear water so you can see them swim, it's amazing!!
These are a much more specialised group of waterfowl though and are not for every one.I highly recommend you start with the dabblers, get good at them and learn their needs before you tackle these more specialised species. They do need a good high protein food 18% minimum and all species in this group do best if given the floating catfish food daily too, as they all take in more animal proteins daily than the dabbler species.
These do still graze, but not nearly as heavily as the dabblers do, the sawbills dont at all.

The vast majority of these birds are on the USFWS Permit list, and most all are great community birds.

In general most of these species, at least our native ones live from the Great Lakes region north to the Arctic Circle, so winters here are a joke to them, again there are a few tropical divers, but most of them are very are and very pricey, you'll know them if you buy them, they'll need a little winter protection, but 95% of all diver species take cold like it's nothing. The same can not be said for summer time, they all do best in well shaded aviaries especially in southern climates. I also had misters going over all my ponds in the summer for them, they loved it and would sit under them for hours.
Most all divers spend the majority of their life on the water as thats where the feed, breed, and basically live, so good sized, 2-3 foot deep ponds are a must, they also do much better if you can keep you water as clean as possible, by all means, never let it get green and nasty, they cant tolerate it very well, as they are use to the large lakes and sea where the water is always clean.
Most species in this group are second to third year breeders, a lot of them like the saw bills, goldeneye, buffle head, all the sea ducks etc dont even reach mature coloration til their second year.
The majority of these are also ground nesters. The only exceptions I can think of right off are the goldeneyes, bufflehead, hooded merganser and smew. Wood duck style nest boxes are perfect for them, for the american and barrow's goldeneye, they are a much fatter duck than normal cavity nesters, so you'll need to make your opening about 5 inches wide and 4 inches tall, the other dimensions are the same size wise for the box.

There are several classes of divers just like the dabblers. Some arent too bad to keep and reproduce, others are just plain tuff, here s a quick break down for some of them.

The pochard style birds are the easiest, and I recommend you start with some of these first, if you cant keep them going, by all means, dont try the others as they just get tuffer from here. Some of the species include, the red head, red crested pochard, rosey bill pochard, ferruginous white eye, and a few more. Most of these, do well on a basic hi pro feed with a little catfish food tossed in. There are less animal protein eaters than other species, and do tend to graze more. They all color out their first year and most reproduce easily in a good clean environment, all are ground nesters. They will lay 6-12 egg on an average clutch and will often lay a second clutch if the eggs are pulled. They do incubate fairly easily as far as migratory waterfowl go. They also handle both winter and summer temps easily. This group can and often will interbreed, even with dabbler. I had more wood duck red head cross breeds than any thing.

Scaup style birds are very beautiful and interesting birds in a mixed collection as well. They are next in line on the ease of care scale. Most all of these are in the USFWS Permit section and include the greater and lesser scaup, ringneck duck, tufted duck, and for a lack of some where better to put him, the canvasback. Them excluded, they are are pretty much black white and various grey in color. All are ground nesters, most are second year breeder, some will take 3, bird dependant. Average clutch size varies from 6-12. They can be incubated once you are good at it. All of these live around the Great Lakes and Northern regions of the country , so winter is no problem, summers are fairly easy on them too with a little shade. Like all divers they love their catfish food. These are more grazers though, so are not solely dependant on it. Most can be kept in trios, though pairs are best. Interspecies breeding is no where near as big of an issue as in the pochard family.

Sawbills, these are your merganser and smew. There are 3 species of merganser kept in captive US collections, the hooded being the most common, the American, then the super rare gorgeous red breasted, and the smew from Russia. All of these are best kept in pairs
All 4 of these species are full blown nothing but fish and crustacean eaters. Therefore the catfish feed is a must when keeping these as no prepared ratio has enough protein alone to keep them healthy. I live on a 12 acre swamp too and would always keep minnow traps in it just to give them some live stuff to supplement and keep them healthy. They really loved these treats, and if you keep clean clear water, it's amazing to watch a merganser dive and chase down fish under water, you'll be amazed at how agile they are. Pretty much anything I caught they got, minnows, small fish, crayfish, eels, tadpoles, if it swims, they'll eat it. I also feel this helped in breeding season, as they were kept more natural, and bird in a natural feeling environment will always produce better. This is not a requirement to keep them, but it helps.
They all handle bothe extremes of weather fairly well, the American and red breasted are norther species and do like the shade in the summer. All 4 are on the USFWS Permit section. The chicks are best hatched by their mothers unless you are a good waterfowl hatcher, they can make you pull your hair out in an incubator, and ALL of these ducklings must be started with meal worms, they'll have no idea what so ever to do with crumbles! Place the worms under a small amount of food til they get the hang of it. A started wood duck or mandarins is great too, but make sure it doesnt get all the meal worms, they really need that extra protein to get off to a good start.
The sawbills usually will not cross breed with any thing.They take 2 years to color up, and usually 2 -3 to breed.

Goldeneyes and buffleheads are the next group. They are all northern species and do like to be kept cool in the summer months, winters are no problem for these. All 3 species, the American Goldeneye, Barrow's Goldeneye, and Bufflehead are on the USFWS Permit section, and are all cavity nesters.
The 2 goldeneye species are fairly large breeds where the buffle head is tiny. They are often found on coastal waters or large lakes, the bufflehead is the only one to frequent smaller bodies of water, rivers, and ponds. Due to this, these are some of the species that really require clean preferably flowing water. Dirty ponds, equals poor quality on these.
The 2 goldeneye species are very similarly colored, the barrow's white face mark is coma shaped where the American's is a white dot. The American is also about a third smaller. The two species hens are virtually identical, the size being the only difference. These can be kept in trios, as for some reason with this group of divers, males are hard to come by. Usually you will get 1 male for every 3-5 females you raise, they just reproduce this way. The are very good about staying with their species though when it comes to breeding and crosses are very seldom if ever encountered.
None of these will breed until at these 2 usually 3 and all will color up on their second season. Like the sawbills, their ducklings are a must for the meal worm starter, and are best hatched by their mother, very seldom will they lay a second clutch any way, they usually range from 4-9 eggs, the buffleheads are on the lower end of that scale.

Next up are the stiff tails.
These are the ruddy ducks American and Argentine, the whitehead and a couple others. Aside from the American and possibly the Argentine Ruddy ducks, you'll probably never see any of the others as only a small handful of breeders in the world have them, so I'll leave my focus on the ruddy's.
These are called stiff tails, because , well, they have a stiff ridged tail. The veins in their tail feathers are very strong and Stout. The reason for this is they are so adapted to a life on water that they barely can walk, they use their tails kind of like walking sticks to climb out of the water when needed. They also stick straight up in the air when on the water in a very erect position, very cool and tiny little birds, hand sized for the most part.
They cant walk well because their legs are set so far back on their bodies, nearly at the tail, and their feet are about 1/3 the over all size of the bird for better under water action, on the ground they can barley move around, but boy do they get it under water. Due to all this, these birds are bets fed at the waters edge and the floating catfish feed is a big must. They will at rare time cavity nest, but most are ground/waters edge nesters. And for their small size, they lay a huge egg! Due to this, they only lay 2-4 per clutch, and once again are best left to the hens, meal worms are a must to start them, and you really need to wet brood them if at all possible. The babies are mini versions of the adults, and dont walk well at all in a dry brooder. Honestly these were always some of the toughest for me to keep.

And finally the creme De la creme
Sea Ducks

These are the top of the line in all migratory waterfowl. They have the most specialized diet and are the most sought after, though most common folks will never be able to afford them ($2000 per pair to start for most up to $5000) , but My God they are gorgeous!! Do yourself a favor and do an image search on some of these names if you have never seen them!!.
All of these species are on the USFWS Permits section. For these, I do advise using Mazuri Sea Duck Diet along with the Catfish feed. Due to their extremely high cost, it is a good idea to keep these in a special sea duck pen too, just to be sure they get all the attention they need. Stuff like goldene eye and sawbills are fine to keep with them, as they will benefit for the extra care as well. Pristine water quality is essential in keeping the species, they WILL NOT tolerate dirty water at all.
There are several species in this group, the most drab of the will be the scoters, they come in 3-4 species and are the rarest in captivity.
After that are the Eiders, the come in several subspecies of Common or American, the drop dead beautiful King, Specticaled,and Settler's. Then you have the Old squaw or Long Tailed duck (which can dive several hundred feet!) And the most beautiful of all waterfowl, the Harlequin (the real one, not that ol domestic guy!)
All of these are specialised sea feeders, eating all sorts of fish, shellfish and mulousk, so hi pro quality feed it a must.
I only ever had the Common Eider myself, but they did breed very well even here in south Georgia for me. Well shaded cool aviary are the trick, they are so well insulated that they cant stand high heat and humidity, so keep them cool and they'll do great. The harlequin and old squaw are wood duck sized, all the eider and scooter are huge birds for migratory species, bigger than pekings. The all live in extreme northern climates, flying south for the winter with them usually means Canada, though we often see the scooter here in Georgia in large numbers when I head offshore fishing.
If you do get them to reproduce, leave them with their mothers, you will not hatch them in an incubator!! Average clutch size is 2-6 and 1 clutch is usually it for them.
One other note on the eider, their down is so soft and highly prized, that is is collected by the tons on the arctic tundras every year for the feather down industry, pillows and mattresses made from duck down? Usually Eider...
Brood these the same as the goldeneye and sawbills, IF you are luck enough to ever reproduce any. The common eider aside, there are only about 4-6 breeders on the continent to every be able to get the high dollar species to reproduce! Good luck with them.

If yall have any specific species questions on any type of birds, feel free to ask. These were just some general guide lines for the over all groups. I will be happy at answer any questions to the best of my ability from wood ducks and mandarins to Eiders.
Thanks and happy hatching!!

 

[1lpoock]

Thanks so much for this thread! I have truly learned a lot and I will always use this for a resource... Let's hope this thread stays alive with questions!

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Quote:
Thanks,
I hope it does, fortunately it is a sticky thread, so it will always be there at the top of the duck section if any of you need to find it later down the line
Fire away with all the questions yall have!

 

[Matapatos]

Do the breeders that have sea ducks have web sites? I know they are only dreams for most of us, but the long tailed duck has long been my favorite, even have a few come to the Great Salt Lake every year but haven't been fortunate enough to harvest one. I'm sure we would all love to see their setups and check out their birds! The dream is alive somewhere and for someone else, but it is alive!