10/01/2024
Just wanted to make an educational post on wood ducks.
I’ve been receiving a lot of phone calls since duck opened about wood ducks for taxidermy. To the normal hunter, the bird may look nice and feathered out, but early season wood ducks tend to always have pin feathers.
Some of the biggest things to look for when deciding if your wood duck is appropriate to mount.
#1- Their crown (hood size). Mature wood ducks have a good size crown, the longer it extends down the back of his neck shows the maturity of the bird. If the crown is short, that usually indicates the bird is a new born or going through his 2nd year of life.
#2- Their side pockets. The black and white feathers you see when they are standing, is one of the biggest take aways for a wood ducks. The time of the year plays a huge part in whether those feathers are fully feathered or not. Mature wood ducks sometimes have those feathers fully grown, but once again, the time of the year plays a big role with how fast they grow. When examining your wood duck, a mature bird should have between 7-9 black and white bars. Anything less normally means it’s not ready to be mounted. I added some pictures of what a blood feather (pin feather) looks like when they are not grown out, compared to a fully grown feather.
#3 Their orange/ gold tersels. On the last picture, I circled where to find these feathers. It is located near its tail fan. The longer those feathers are, shows that bird is mature. If they are half the length or does not have them at all, indicates that bird is was still maturing and needed more time.
I hope this helps some of you. Share this with your friends. If you have any questions regarding a wood duck you shot, and still aren’t sure. You can reach out to me via DMs or by phone.
Here’s a mature wood duck I recently put together.
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