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!!
