Nesting and Incubation

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Nesting and Incubation
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Components and Terms

• Embryonic Development
• Metabolic Requirement of Female
• Predation on Eggs and Parents
• minimize

• Sessions period spent on nest by female
• Recesses period spent off nest by female
• Incubation constancy average time spent on nest
• Incubation Period time from laying first egg to
  hatch

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Where Do waterfowl nests?

• Uplands (grassland and forest)
• Most dabblers and pochards
• Some sea ducks
• Swans and geese

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Cavities

• Wood ducks, Hooded Mergansers, Goldeneyes,
  Buffleheads, Whistling ducks, and Common
  Mergansers (sometimes)

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Overwater

• Canvasback, Redhead, and some dabbling ducks

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Nest Structures

• Boxes
• Tubs
• Platforms

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When do waterfowl nest?

• Much Intra- and Inter-specific variation
• Latitudinal Variation
• Generally nest later further north
• May affect renesting potential

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When does incubation commence?

• At end of laying?
• Synchronous hatching?
• Before completion of clutch?
• Egg viability
• Maintain synchronous hatching
• Inter-egg vocalization
• Egg size/nutrient pattern
• Incubation constancy increases as laying
  progresses

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Incubation Constancy and Egg Size Patterns
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Incubation Strategies

• Shared Incubation
• Magpie Geese
• Whistling Ducks
• Black Swans
• Other Swans
• Female-Only
• Parasitism
• Intra- and Inter-specific

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Embyro Requirements

• Thermal Environment
• Brood Patch for heat transfer
• Internal Temperature (31-39 C)
• Nest Temperatures
• More variable
• Importance of egg position and egg rotation
• Gaseous
• High humidity especially important around hatch

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Parent/Female Behavior

• Incubation Constancy 88
• Weather
• Body size
• Predation
• Cost
• Starvation
• Body size
• Length
• 21 to 37 days and related to body size

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Hatching Process

• Pipping star, whole, cap remove
• Emergence and drying
• Brooding
• See (http//lancaster.unl.edu/4h/Embryology/HatchP
  ic.htm)

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Marking

• Web Tag

• Plasticine-filled band