Gadwall Wednesday

Today’s waterfowl of the week is the Gadwall. This duck may not be as colorful in appearance as other ducks, but Gadwalls have a simple elegance that makes them hard to ignore.

Gadwall (Anas strepera)

Description:

• Roughly the same size as Mallards
• Squarish heads with high foreheads
• White secondary feathers sometimes visible
• Males: Gray-brown with black tail patch and silver tertial feathers (innermost flight feathers to the wing), black bill 
• Females: Brown and buffy, orange bill with black spot
• Juveniles: Gray-brown, plain face, thin black bill with orange sides

Gadwalls, male (front) and female (rear) (Image by BirdNation)

Range:

• Resident: Mid-Atlantic Coast, Pacific Coast, Pacific Northwest, Great Plains region
• Breeding: Upper Great Plains, Great Lakes, parts of Central Canada
• Winter: Southern regions of United States, Mexico
• Migration: Medium-distance migrant. Northeastern United States, Midwest region, Ontario, nothern parts of Quebec and Newfoundland

Habitat:

freshwater or alkali lakes, coastal marshes, estuaries, inter-mountain valleys

Diet:

Aquatic vegetation, mollusks, crustaceans, invertebrates, insects. Forages by dabbling or taking food off the water’s surface. Will sometimes scavenge and steal food from other birds, especially American Coots.

Breeding/Nesting:

• Courtship: Occurs in the fall and pair bonds are monogamous during breeding season. Displays included showing off white patches by making head and tips of tail meet, rearing up with bill in water while whistling. Pairs will face each other and bob heads or hide their bill under the wing as if preening.
• Nesting Site: A shallow depression about 200 yards from open water in grasses/brush or on small islands.
• Young: Females incubate 8-11 eggs for about 3 weeks. Chick are precocial so they quickly leave the nest, and are tended to by the mother but can feed themselves. First flight occur around 50 days after hatching.

Gadwall Nest By USFWS Mountain-Prairie; Credit: Char Binstock / USFWS (2012) (Flickr: Gadwall Nest) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

Vocalizations:

Females quack similarly to Mallards, though they sound more nasally and higher-pitched. Males give a deep call during flight that is referred to as a “burp”.

Conservation:

Gadwall populations have actually increased over the years due to conservation programs.

Fun Facts:

• Sometimes females will act as brood parasites and lay their eggs in another female’s nest.
• Gadwalls are the third most hunted duck in North America (after Mallard and Green-winged Teal respectively)
• Gadwalls also breeding in parts of Asia and northern Europe.
• Females will consume more invertebrates than males do to get more protein while laying her eggs. She will lay one egg each day until she completes the brood.