Ducks: Breeding Season Displays

Signs of Spring

It may not be spring on the calendar for another month, but around here, nature already thinks it has come. The temperatures are mild, the trees are putting out buds, tulips and daffodils are pushing out of the ground, and the birds are singing and pairing up for mating and nesting season.  

In estuaries, bays, creeks, and ponds, the ducks are also caught up in springtime behavior.  There are male-female pairs at every 'ducky' location I've visited.  

Male & Female Barrow's Goldeneye Ducks

Pair of Golden-Eyes in Bellingham Bay, Boulevard Park

Male and Female Wood Duck pair at Scudder Pond, Bellingham

(This was from late winter, last year.)

Mallard Ducks are mating.  At Lake Padden, I observed a pair of Mallards swim off from the main body of ducks.  They went over to shallow water near the shore of the lake, where trees and shrubs overhang the shoreline.  In this relative privacy, they began to display to each other.  Facing each other, they began to dip their beaks in the water, in unison, a form of head bobbing.  After a half a dozen of these beak dips, the male mounted the female and they copulated for about three seconds.  Immediately afterwards, the male moved off about two meters away and the female half rose out of the water with wing flaps, settled, and then preened.

American Wigeons are also displaying.  The photos that follow are included to show various displays.  If you learn these displays, you will begin to see more about duck 'sociology'.  One of the easiest courtship displays to see is when a female and male head bob in unison.  Another, which is so obvious, many don't see its significance, is that the male and female swim together...usually with the female following the male.  

Mock Preening and Wing Lift/Wing-Bar Display

This combination of displays is basically meant to say, "Look at me!"

The lifting of the wing allows the color patch that is on many male ducks to be seen.  The duck is not really preening.  It is part of this, "Here I am!" display.    If this is done to the female partner, she may do the wing-life/mock preen stance in unison with the male.  It becomes a courtship signal.  In this photo you see an American Wigeon male.

Wigeon Wing Lift/Wing-Bar Display

Half-Rise From Water, With Wing Flaps

Common Goldeneye

This can be a courtship display.

Pair Strengthening Displays/Mutual Looks

American Wigeons

I was observing a flock of wigeons on Lake Padden.  Suddenly, there was a disturbance that engulfed a dozen of the birds.  From a distance, it looked like a brawl or melee.  Through the binoculars, the disturbance was all caused by one duck, charging the others.  This is what it looks like:  a macho display.

Charging/Dominance Display/Head Forward/Rapid Swim/Vocalizing

Another Example of Mock Preening

Watching ducks for identification can be frustrating, especially for beginners, children, and adults with vision problems.  Watching ducks for BEHAVIOR, however, is something everyone can do for enjoyment. This may be a good way to get children involved in bird watching.

Short-Eared Owl

On February 1st I decided to observe Short-Eared Owls.  I had spent all day working on habitat data and I wanted to get out and actually see some birds... not just numbers that describe them.  The photos you will see were taken in the failing light of evening.  These owls begin hunting in late afternoon and hunt into the night.  They prefer marsh land or stubbly fields.   Given the dusk conditions, I was happy just to see a Short-Eared Owl.  You'll quickly see that my primary concern was not photos, but a chance to see the owl in its natural habitat.

Wetland Reserve near Edison

Marshland with the Anacortes oil refinery in the background

Knowing there was a lot of standing water, I wore waterproof boots.   

If this was Europe, this land would be called the Polders.  The tidal water is held back by dykes, but it floods after rains and high tides.  It is perfect for many wetland birds.  I've seen Red-Winged Blackbirds, Killdeer, ducks, Snow Geese, Marsh Wrens, Savanna Sparrows, Ring-Necked Pheasants, Dunlins, Red-Tailed Hawks, Rough-Legged Hawks, Vultures, Bald Eagles, and Northern Harriers.  In fact, as I started my walk, I saw the silhouette of a Northern Harrier hunting over the fields.

This reserve is planted intentionally for ground cover and seed for birds. 

I followed a drainage channel out toward the dykes.  A night chorus of frogs started and increased in intensity.  In the distance, I could see a perched Short-Eared Owl.

The so-called 'ears' are really feather tufts.  On Great-Horned Owls, the tufts are readily apparent.  On this Short-Eared Owl, the small tufts were laid down with the contour of the head and could not be seen.  These owls hunt voles and field mice.  This bird was looking around, but not yet actively hunting.

Maybe this is a good time to stress the use of general impressions in field identification.  Standing in a puddle as dark falls, you can't be thumbing through your Sibley or other bird guide.  By the time you find what you are looking for, the bird has flown away.  Besides, the color patterns that Peterson, Sibley and other field guides use as indicators are useless when all you can see is a silhouette.  If you learn the silhouette and general flight behavior, you can spend your time looking at the bird and verify the identity with a field guide at your leisure.

I made a few notes, below, showing general flight patterns and some unique behaviors of the Short-Eared Owl.  I watched as this owl did a short flight from its perch.  It did a slow, leisurely loop and came back to the perch.  Different authors describe their flight as 'moth-like', 'wobbly', 'loping', and even 'erratic'.  During courtship, however, the male will do some spectacular wing-clapping and will climb, to 200 to 300 feet then dive...all to impress his lady-love.

I have never seen the Short-Eared Owl's mock-injury display (shown above).  It is used to draw coyotes and other predators away from their nest and nestlings.   The nests are on the ground, making the birds vulnerable to ravens, crows, skunks, falcons, Great-Horned Owls, predatory mammals, and farming tractors.  A few other birds, such as the Killdeer, have the same broken-wing distraction strategy.  These distraction displays are especially important because the fledgling Short-Eared Owls can't fly!  When they fledge, they walk away from the nest.  They only gain the ability to fly later.

The Short-Eared Owl has seen a Northern Harrier fly by.  It leaves its perch briefly.

It soon returned to its perch, out-of-sight.

It briefly perched, then flew off.

It was getting too dark to see any details.  A different group of bird sounds started replacing the day sounds.  It was time to leave.

The full moon was high as I returned home.

If you would like to learn more about owls, here are two of my postings on Snowy Owls:

January 30, 2012 -  Boundary Bay, British Columbia: Snowy Owls

December 30, 2011 - Snowy Owls and a Rough-Legged Hawk