Wood Ducks and Their Flocks

While my 1st picture shows a Wood Duck who's probably raising ducklings, the 2nd picture shows a Wood Duck who probably isn't the mother to those turtles. 

These 2 pictures are of 2 female Wood Ducks in basically the same location and I found it interesting that 1 of them was surrounded by juvenile Wood Ducks while the other was surrounded by turtles (probably Painted Turtles).

One thing that could be going on is intraspecific brood parasitism, where 1 duck mom ends up raising the ducklings of other duck moms. Perhaps the 2nd female's ducklings are being raised by the 1st female, and so she has no parental responsibilities and can hang out with her turtle friends instead. 

Of course, there are probably dozens of other plausible explanations behind these 2 pictures. I'm just sketching out 1 possibility.

June 13, 2023 at Washington Valley Reservoir
Photo 300988614, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

June 13, 2023 at Washington Valley Reservoir
Photo 300988894, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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