Critters This Texas Couple Helps Hatch Hundreds of Baby Wood Ducks Bob and Donna McFarland have handed out 177 nest boxes for the colorful species.

Wood ducks (the prettiest of all ducks), which nest above ground, will seek out the box to nest. A little more than a month later, about a dozen little fuzzballs will hatch.

The baby wood ducks appear as if by magic at the entrance to the box, using their sharp nails to scale the box wall. The ducklings usually pause for a moment before the big jump.

A great many birds spend the spring and summer months in the region. Some species of waterfowl, however, are usually scarce at the same time.

Future for little ducks, however, is an iffy proposition, certainly around here. Twenty-two of those babies disappeared, most likely down a fox or coyote gullet.

You have to be a diligent birdwatcher to catch jump day, which happens the morning after wood ducks are born.

Wood duck babies usually leave the nest the morning after they hatch because wood ducks do not feed their young in the nest. You can watch the ducklings “jump” live at ustream.tv/channel/wild ...

At least eight baby wood ducks were saved from a storm drain near 7th Street and 15th Avenue in East Moline and reunited with their mother Monday afternoon after they ...