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In such cases the birds could benefit from being caught and taken to water, but this must be well planned and prepared. There is normally no second chance, and if the mother panics and flies away, she may not return to her young. Young ducklings can feed themselves as soon as they reach water, but must learn what is edible.
They depend on their mother for warmth for a few days. She broods them regularly, particularly at night, as they easily chill in cold weather. The down of the ducklings is not naturally waterproof.
They get the waterproofing for their down from their mother. She also protects her ducklings from attacks by other mallards.
Ducks do not tolerate stray ducklings close to their own brood, and females kill small strange young they encounter. Ducklings take days to fledge fly and become independent. They are able to breed when they are a year old. The journey to the water is hazardous for the whole family, and on occasions, the mother dies, or part or all of the brood becomes separated from her.
When faced with a handful of endearing duck orphans, think carefully before you take on the task of rearing them. Rearing ducklings is a long, messy, time-consuming process. You need to be able to commit at least two months to the task. In most instances, it is best to pass the youngsters on to an expert rehabilitator.
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In fact, Kaufman says a female duck will have a nest of her own and also make her way over to another nest or two to drop off a few eggs. Most of the time ducks will lay their eggs in the nests of other ducks of the same species, but occasionally they are known to lay their eggs in the nests of other duck species.
Redheads will even lay their eggs in bittern nests, says Kaufman. If a raccoon invades a merganser nest and destroys all the eggs, the female still has more offspring being safely incubated in other nests.
Female ducks lay about a dozen eggs and can incubate as many as 20, says Kaufman. The merganser in this picture probably picked up several dozen ducklings that got separated from their mothers. This mother duck will tend to her ducklings for a couple more weeks, until the little birds are big enough to defend themselves.
At that point, they will leave the group, and if they are females, one day potentially end up adopting a few dozens ducklings of their own. Freebie Alert! As a result, hens nest less aggressively and produce fewer young. During these years, even ducklings that successfully hatch have lower survival because of reduced food supplies and more frequent movements between wetlands in search of food. Likewise, duckling survival is highly variable and may be as low as 10 percent or higher than 70 percent.
It seems that virtually any animal that is slightly larger than a duckling will eat it. In my research in the rivers and swamps of Mississippi and Alabama, I attached radio transmitters to nesting wood duck hens and their ducklings. I found that red-shouldered hawks, owls, fish, cottonmouths, snapping turtles, great blue herons and other predators ate about of radio-marked ducklings that I studied. Besides predators, young waterfowl are sometimes exposed to harsh environmental conditions such as cold, rain and wind.
Heavy rain, especially when accompanied by cold temperatures, can temporarily decrease the amount of insects available to ducklings. Inclement weather also compels the hen to increase brooding time to try to prevent the young birds from dying from hypothermia. For ducklings and goslings, more time spent brooding may mean less time available for feeding. Researchers in North Dakota have found that total loss of mallard broods may be five times more likely on days when it is raining than on days when it is dry.
Clearly, high-quality grasslands and wetlands are critical for nesting waterfowl and their broods. We cannot control droughts, but policies and management practices that promote large tracts of grassland and that prevent wetland drainage are vital for nesting success.
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