The Life Of A Whio

Habits

• Blue ducks like to eat aquatic insects, such as caddisflys, mayfly and stoneflys. They also like to eat larvae.
• The male can live for 12 years while the female live for only a short amount.
• Male Whio have fights against other males for a female.
• Whio are very aggressive especially when defending there territory.

Habitat

• They live by fast flowing water like river sides.
• They prefer to live by high water so it's good to swim.

Appearance

• Whio's have big webbed feet to help them swim in the fast flowing water.
• They can reach up to 530mm long.
• The have an upper bill which has a thick fleshy lip that over laps the lower bill.
• The male makes a distinctive high pitch sound to call the the female Whio.
• They moult between December and May.

Young

• Whio's nest between August and October.
• They lay 4-9 creamy white eggs.

Threats

• Threats are habitat loss because of poor riverside management and reduced water.
• There's different water flow because of the hydro-electric power, which makes it unsuitable for them to swim in.
• Stoats are a big danger to the female ducvks when they are nesting. They attack the female duck, steal the eggs and steal the young ducklings from the riverside.