Title: Wood duck and hooded merganser breeding success in nest boxes in Ontario
Abstract: Wood ducks (Aix sponsa) and hooded mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus) are common breeders in nest boxes in eastern Canada, but few studies have compared the breeding biology of these northern nesting birds to that of birds nesting to the south in the United States. We studied the breeding success of these species nesting in boxes near Ottawa, Ontario, Canada between 1986-1999. For wood ducks, mean annual box occupancy was 69% and mean clutch size was 12 eggs, with 60% of eggs hatched in a typical year. For nests with at least one egg hatching, hatching success was 83%. For hooded mergansers, mean box occupancy was 10% and mean clutch size was 10 eggs, with 64% of eggs hatched in an average year. For successful nests, hatching success was 87%. For both species, fewer eggs were hatched in years when the nest-box breeding population laid higher numbers of eggs. Despite the fact that this nest-box population was located near the northern limit of the wood duck breeding range, our results suggest that the basic nesting parameters of this population were similar to those of populations farther south.
Publication Year: 2002
Publication Date: 2002-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 12
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot