American black duck
American black duck
Animal Diversity Web
University of Michigan
Museum of Zoology
Habitat
The Black Duck during the breeding season prefers a variety of fresh and brackish waters in a forest environment. These include: alkaline marshes, acid bogs and muskegs, lakes, ponds, and stream margins, as well as tidewater habitats such as bays and estuaries. The most favored areas are brackish estuarine bays with extensive adjacent agricultural lands. Outside of the breeding season the duck lives on large, open lagoons and on the coast, even in rough sea waters (Merendino and Ankney, 1994).
The northernmost breeders descend to lower latitudes to winter on the Atlantic seaboard of North America, usually as far south as Texas. Some reports have been made of observation of Black Ducks in Korea, Puerto Rico, and Western Europe, where some have stayed for an extended period of time (Hoyo, et al 1992).
Food Habits
The American Black Duck eats seeds and vegetative parts of aquatic plants and crop plants. They also consume a rather high proportion of invertebrates (insects, molluscs, crustaceans) in spring and summer. They feed by grazing, probing, dabbling or upending in shallow water. They occasionally dive (Hoyo, et al 1992).
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