05/21/2026
Quack, quack 🦆 'Tis duckling season!
Mallards and Wood Duck adults might be easy to tell apart, but their babies look quite similar. Here's a quick guide on how to identify the two.
Found a Baby Wild Duck? Please Read First
Baby Mallards and Wood Ducks are wild birds. In Illinois, it is illegal to keep or raise sick, injured, or orphaned wildlife unless you are licensed by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The goal is not to keep them — the goal is to keep them safe, warm, quiet, and get them to a licensed wildlife rehabilitator as quickly as possible.
First: Is the mother nearby?
If the ducklings are with their mother and they are not injured, leave them with her. Do not try to “save” healthy ducklings that are actively following a mother duck.
If you find one duckling alone, that is different. Ducks, geese, and swans generally do not leave their young alone, so a lone duckling needs help and a wildlife rehabilitator should be contacted.
Wood Duck babies may be found under trees, near buildings, or even far from water. That can be normal because Wood Ducks nest in tree cavities, and the babies jump down after hatching to follow their mother to water. They can jump from very high nests without being hurt.
All About Birds
What To Do Right Away
1. Keep them warm
Put the duckling in a small box or plastic tote lined with a soft, non-raveling towel or paper towels.
Use gentle heat if possible:
Heating pad on low under half the box, not inside with direct contact.
Warm rice sock or warm water bottle wrapped in a towel.
Leave room for the duckling to move away if too warm.
A cold duckling can crash fast. Warm first, then call for help.
2. Keep them dry
Do not put baby wild ducks in a bathtub, sink, pond, kiddie pool, or bowl of water to swim.
Ducklings can chill, get waterlogged, or drown. Wood Duck specialists specifically warn that Wood Duck ducklings should not have unlimited access to bathing water until they are older and waterproofed.
3. Keep them quiet and dark
Stress kills wild ducklings. Put the box in a quiet room away from:
Kids
Dogs
Cats
Loud noises
Excess handling
Photos/selfies
Do not let children carry them around. Do not cuddle them. Keep them calm.
4. Use a secure lid
Wood Duck ducklings can jump surprisingly high. A box or tote needs a breathable lid or screen top so they cannot escape. Wildlife rehab guidance notes that Wood Duck ducklings can jump about two feet straight up.
Do NOT Do These Things
Please do not:
Do not give bread.
Do not give milk.
Do not force water into the bill.
Do not put them in deep water.
Do not put them with domestic ducks or chickens.
Do not keep them overnight “just to see.”
Do not let children play with them.
Do not release them at a random pond.
Do not put Wood Duck ducklings with Mallard ducklings if you are holding them for a rehabilitator; Wood Duck care is more delicate and they should be handled by rehabbers.
The safest short-term care is: warm, dry, dark, quiet, contained, and delivered to a licensed wildlife rehabilitator.
Food and Water
For most finders, the best answer is: do not feed them unless a licensed rehabber tells you to.
Well-meaning feeding can hurt orphaned wildlife. Wildlife guidance warns that people often cause harm by giving the wrong food or water before the animal reaches a rehabilitator.
If someone must hold them briefly while waiting for a rehabber, they can place a very shallow water source in the box only if the duckling cannot climb into it and get soaked. A small chick waterer with marbles or clean stones in the tray is safer than an open dish. But again — no swimming water.
When They Need Help Immediately
Call a licensed wildlife rehabilitator right away if:
The duckling is alone with no mother.
It is cold, weak, limp, or not standing.
It was handled by a dog, cat, or child.
It has blood, wounds, swelling, or a broken leg/wing.
It is wet and chilled.
It is stuck in a storm drain, window well, parking lot, road, or pool.
The mother is dead.
The duckling is a Wood Duck and no mother is calling nearby.
For Illinois, people can search for a licensed wildlife rehabilitator through Wildlife Illinois/IDNR. Not every rehabber can take birds, so search specifically for bird/waterfowl help.
