Canada Goose: Note the white patch on the side of the head and under the throat, hence the name Ring-neck.
Interesting and familiar to us is the Canada Goose. It can be seen flying in "V" formation high overhead in the fall and spring. The characteristic honk always helps in attracting attention.
The black head and neck with the white patch under the throat and on the side of the head will distinguish it from the other geese found in Louisiana. It can be separated from the ducks by its very long neck and by its large size.
The geese nest in the far north, Canada and Alaska. The nest is built on the ground usually near water. It is made of grasses, sticks, and reeds and lined with down. Five to nine dull greenish, yellowish, or buffy-white eggs are laid.
The food consists mainly of vegetable matter, seaweeds, eel grass, water-plants, corn, wheat, other cereal grains, and the tender shoots of grasses, and sometimes crustaceans and insects.
Mallard (left: female, right: male).
Our most common duck in winter.
Often called the French Duck in Louisiana
The Mallard is one of our most common ducks found in Louisiana in the winter. Here it is often called the French Duck. The male has a green head with a white ring around the neck. The breast is red; upper parts gray; belly, grayish-white; tail with a white border. The female is brown with the same white border on the tail.
The food of the Mallard is ninety per cent vegetable matter such as marsh grass, smart weed, widgeon grass, eel grass, etc. The other ten per cent consists of insects such as mosquito larvae and different kinds of flies.
The Mallard breeds mostly in the northern states north to the Arctic. The nest is built in a dry place of grasses and reeds. Eight to ten large pale greenish or white eggs are laid, which hatch in a little less than four weeks.
From this species most of our domestic ducks have been derived.
This duck was at one time very plentiful, but during the past decade it has decreased appreciably in numbers, due possibly to a combination of factors, the principal one being destruction of breeding grounds in the north.
Black Vulture: Often spoken of as Nature's scavenger.
The Black Vulture is known by some as the buzzard. Its French name is Carencro. It is completely black with a little white under the wings. Its black head lacks feathers. The wing spread is a little under five feet, and the flight is very graceful and majestic.
The Turkey Vulture, which is very common in all of Louisiana differs from the Black Vulture by its larger size and red head. In flight the greater amount of white on its wings and its longer tail will separate it from the Black Vulture.
The vultures are permanent residents of Louisiana. This mean that they live here in summer and winter.
Their food, which consists of dead animals, is located by the bird's keen sight. It is the belief of many farmers that this bird spreads the dreaded diseases of charbon and hog cholera. This ma be partly true, but it can be prevented by the vaccination of live stock against such diseases.
The nest is made on the ground, in a log or stump, usually in a swamp or along a river. One to three large white speckled eggs hatch into creatures covered with buffy down. They are fed by regurgitation since adult birds cannot carry anything in their bills or feet. The Black Vulture tends to be gregarious.
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