Whio Facts

Appearance

• They have blue,grey feathers so they can hide in there surroundings like rocks, bush and water.
• Adult length: 530mm; males 1000g; females 800g
• Blue duck molt between December and May.

Young

• Blue ducks nest between August and October, laying 4-9 creamy white eggs. The female incubates the eggs for 35 days and chicks can fly when about 70 days old.
• Nesting and egg incubation of four to seven eggs is undertaken by the female while the male stands guard. Nests are shallow, twig, grass and down lined scrapes in caves, under river-side vegetation or in log jams, and are therefore very prone to spring floods. For this, and other reasons, their breeding success is extremely variable from one year to the next

Threats

• Whilst habitat loss still remains, a threat to blue duck. Other threats are are also very important. Even where high quality river habitat remains. Prediction by introduced mammalian predators is now playing a significant role in the decline of the species.

Habitats

• Blue duck require bouldery rivers and streams within forested catchments which provide high water quality, low sediment loadings, stable banks and abundant and diverse invertebrate communities.
• With such habitat requirements, blue duck are key indicators of river system health. The higher the number of breeding pairs of blue duck on a given stretch of river, the greater the life supporting capacity of that river.