Nesting structures have been given credit for rebuilding our continents population of Wood Ducks. Save the Hens Foundation is targeting Wood Ducks and Mallards, in our nesting structure program. Studies have proven that Mallards benefit from nesting structures as much as Wood Ducks do, two totally different houses raising two different kinds of ducks. Though different than those used for Wood Ducks, nesting structures for Mallards have proven equally as beneficial.
The Wood Duck houses were needed because breeding habitat was lacking and populations plummeting. Wood Duck houses provided a nesting habitat. The Mallards, with declining grassland habitats, need this same help. The Mallard house is providing the hen with habitat and safety from over abundant ground hunting and avian predators. Mallard houses work and thereby raise the population of migratory wild Mallards.
Today’s prairie, with its unnatural abundance of trees (native prairie was devoid of trees), now offers some prime habitat for the Wood Ducks. Only problem is that the amount of nesting habitat (tree cavities) is lacking. We have the treed habitats, but without the help of a Wood Duck house, populations will continue to be low. The potential for production of wood ducks in the Prairie Pothole Region is just beginning, but certainly far from the maximum. Easy to refurbish, nesting houses allow for cost effective duck production. Populations of Mallards and Wood Ducks need our help today. Save the Hens Foundation, through it’s nesting structure program, targets landscapes that attract large numbers of breeding Mallard pairs, with habitats lacking the grassland threshold otherwise needed to maintain natural reproduction.
