All are part of the wildlife scene in the Missouri wetlands. A dozen eggs is an average clutch. Incubation is about 32 days. Ducklings leave the box immediately after hatching. Free falls of up to 40 feet apparently do them no harm.
First flight is at about nine weeks.
One brood per year is normal, but two broods can occur in southern Missouri. Early foods are primarily insects, but later these ducks eat vegetable foods. They winter in the lower Mississippi Valley. Click here to view a printable version of the blueprint for this project. They're links to a special type of downloadable file viewable with Adobe's free Acrobat Reader.