A large, dark, dabbling duck of eastern ponds and marshes. Can be found on any body of water. Tends to prefer wooded ponds inland and salt marshes and estuaries, especially in winter, throughout coastal parts of its range. Named for its overall dark plumage, its scientific species name, rubripes, is derived from its red leg color.

Identification:

Our darkest dabbling duck, the American Black Duck is chocolate brown with a paler neck and head. The bill is dusky yellow on males and a darker olive on females. In flight, it is the only regularly occurring North American duck to show bright white underwings. It also lacks a white border of its speculum (wing patch)-a mark that easily separates it from female Mallards. Care must also be taken when identifying American Black Ducks in city and town parks as they tend to hybridize with the closely related Mallard.

Distribution and Population Trends:

A bird of the northeastern Neararctic, the American Black Duck breeds across eastern Canada south to the mid Atlantic states. Northern populations migrate as far south as the Gulf Coast where they are seen infrequently during winter. Populations dropped significantly between the 1950's and the 1980's so that there are only about 50% as many birds now as there were before 1950.

Ecology:

Nests are usually in close proximity to water, but the species can nest up to one mile from water. Typical nest is built on or in close proximity to the ground and is nothing more than a depression lined with soft plant material. Sometimes nests in tree cavities. Usually lays 7-11 eggs with rare extremes as few as 4 and as high as 17. Young are born with downy feathers and can swim and feed for themselves almost immediately after hatching.

Threats:

Large scale clearing of forests for agriculture and development has negatively affected this species of woodland lakes. Such practices have provided suitable habitat for Mallards to move in and effectively take over American Black Duck populations. The two species frequently hybridize and this is thought to be another source of the American Black Duck decline.

Conservation:

From 1977 to 1981 legal action was taken to reduce the hunting harvest by 25%. Similar restrictions were placed on this species in Canada after 1986. Several organizations such as the Black Duck Joint Venture, the American Black Duck Symposium, and the Atlantic Coast Joint Venture have focused on protecting hundreds of thousands of hectares of habitat from 1986 to 1998.