Wood duck fact sheet – yurangai

What are wood ducks and what do they look like?

Wood ducks are a small native Australian duck. The scientific name for the wood duck is Chenonetta jubata. Local Aboriginal Peoples may have referred to wood ducks as  yurangai,  the Darug name for duck.

Wood ducks are also called maned ducks because the males have a strip of feathers on the back of their heads that looks a bit like a mane.

Both males and females have a brown head, grey wings with black stripes and a grey and brown speckled belly. The easiest way to tell the male and female apart is to look at the head. The female has paler coloured stripes above and below her eye, and she is slightly smaller. The males have a smoother grey body, whilst the female's body is more mottled.

Male wood ducks have a mane on the back of their head.

Female wood ducks have a white stripe above and below their eye and a speckled belly.

Where do wood ducks live?

Wood ducks are quite common across most of Australia. Needing an environment that has fresh water and grass to graze on, they are often found next to a creek, river, lake, dam, pond, wetland or even in a suburban park.

At the Field of Mars Reserve there are many families of wood ducks along Buffalo Creek.

Wood ducks jumping into Buffalo Creek

What do wood ducks eat?

Wood ducks eat grass and seeds. Sometimes they will eat invertebrates. This diet means wood ducks are omnivores. Wood ducks never dive for food in water, preferring to get their food on the land and the edge of the water.

A group of wood ducks feeding in the grass

Should people feed wood ducks?

People should never feed native birds. Wood ducks eat mostly grass and invertebrates and are quite capable of finding their own food. Human food, especially bread, can make them sick.

What eats wood ducks?

The eggs and chicks can fall prey to Australian birds such as kookaburras, butcher birds, currawongs and ravens. Reptiles like snakes and goannas also eat the eggs and chicks. Eels can slurp ducklings from the surface of water.

Once on the ground the chicks are easy prey for introduced species like cats, dogs, foxes and rats.

Wood duck eggs and chicks are vulnerable to predators such as snakes.

How are wood ducks adapted to their environment?

Wood ducks have pointed beaks at their tip. This helps them to pick and eat grass, seeds and invertebrates.

Wood ducks have webbed feet to assist with swimming. Their feathers are hydrophobic, meaning water runs off their bodies. This helps to keep the ducks dry and assists with flotation in the water.

Did you know that wood duck feathers are waterproof?

How do wood ducks reproduce and what are their life stages?

Wood ducks form a pair for life and the male and the female are usually found close to each other. The female lays 8 to 12 eggs in early spring, in a tree hollow high up in a tree.

The eggs take about 28 days to hatch. The parents feed the chicks for around 3 to 4 weeks until they are ready to leave the nest.

The chicks stay close to their parents who protect them until they can be independent. If a person gets too close to a wood duck family the male will open his beak and hiss as a warning to back off.

Wood duck chicks appear fluffier than the adults due to their thick down feathers.

Male and female wood ducks are very protective of their chicks. The male is leading the group.

Related fact sheets

More bird fact sheets

• Bird fact sheets – overview
• Dusky moorhen fact sheet (another water bird using creeks and wetlands)
• White ibis fact sheet (shares wetland and urban water habitats)
• Laughing kookaburra fact sheet (predator of eggs/chicks)
• Pied currawong fact sheet (egg and chick predator)

Habitats and food

• Water habitats fact sheet
• Field of Mars Reserve fact sheet
• Invertebrate fact sheet – overview (food source)