The story of the bird
He floats among the lily pads as if resting between two different ways of being extraordinary. The drake’s head burns iridescent green and purple, cut by two fine white lines, the red eye set above a chestnut breast flecked in white. Still water below, soft sage in the pads. The plate holds him at the moment the light is exactly right.
Aix sponsa is the most ornate duck in North America, and one of the very few that nests in tree cavities. The female lays a clutch of 9 to 14 eggs, sometimes more, in an old woodpecker hole or a rotted limb scar that can sit 15 metres above the ground. The day after hatching, the ducklings climb to the opening on claws built for bark and jump. They cannot fly. They will not fly for two months. They fall the whole way and they are fine. Then they paddle to their mother.
By 1900 the species was nearly gone, market hunting and swamp clearance having reduced it to a ghost of its range. What rescued it was specific: the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 and, after that, ordinary people nailing wooden nest boxes to poles in the very wetlands where the old cavity trees had been cut. The North American population is now near 4.6 million. The bird came back on the strength of a law and a wooden box.
A plate in the tradition of Audubon, which gave the waterfowl of North America the same patient attention it gave the wading birds and the eagles. Rendered in a contemporary Audubon-inspired natural-history style with a soft paper-grain finish.
Where to hang it. The Wood Duck is the piece of duck wall art that earns a central spot: a lake house or cabin living room, a study, a den, or the wall above a console where its colour can carry the room. It is the show-stopper of the waterfowl set.
Best gift for. A bird lover, a hunter or a lake-house family. It is the easy, always-admired choice for a housewarming, a retirement or a milestone birthday.
Printed on archival Hahnemuhle Photo Rag, framed or unframed, in three standard sizes, 8x10, 16x20 and 24x30 inches, or as an instant digital download.
