Bird
Wood Duck
Aix sponsa
Lives in Alabama all year and nests here. Found in all 67 counties, across 10 habitats.
- Here
- All year
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- All 67 counties
- Habitats
- 10

At a glance
- Group
- Birds
- Here
- All year
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- All 67 counties
- Habitats
- 10
- Habitat models
- Summer, Winter
Where it lives
The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.
Habitats in Alabama 10
Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.



Dense, evergreen groves of live oak, magnolia and other hardwoods in the southern Coastal Plain, from dry oak domes to wet hydric hammocks and south Florida's tropical hammocks; salt-shaped maritime hammocks are maritime forests.
Open, wet, seepage-fed bogs of the Coastal Plain and Sandhills, often with pitcher plants.
Coastal tidal marshes (salinity not stated)
Tidal marshes of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts where the source does not say whether the water is fresh, brackish or salt. A stated salinity files the marsh under freshwater tidal marshes or salt and brackish marshes instead.
Disturbed and introduced wetlands
Wet ground taken over by weedy or introduced plants after disturbance, such as common reed, Chinese tallow or tamarisk stands; the upland counterpart is roadsides, fields and disturbed ground.
Floodplain and bottomland forests
Forests on low ground beside rivers and streams that flood from time to time.
Flat, poorly drained uplands and terraces with oaks, sweetgum and sometimes loblolly pine, wet in winter and dry in summer, but neither a floodplain nor a swamp.
Streams, rivers and their banks
Flowing water and its banks, bars and rocky shoals.
Other habitats in its models (51)
Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Alabama.
- Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer and winter.
- Unconsolidated Shore Summer and winter.
- East-Central Texas Plains Riparian Forest Summer.
- Lower Mississippi River Dune Woodland and Forest Summer.
- South-Central Interior / Upper Coastal Plain Flatwoods Summer, only within 1,000 m of water, for banks and other nest sites.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Summer.
- Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Pine Modifier Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Peatland Pocosin Summer and winter.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Streamhead Seepage Swamp - Pocosin - and Baygall Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Large Natural Lakeshore Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Tidal Wooded Swamp Summer.
- Central Interior and Appalachian Shrub-Herbaceous Wetland Systems Summer.
- Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh Summer and winter.
- Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Winter.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Large River Swamp Summer and winter.
- Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Basin Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Nonriverine Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest - Taxodium/Nyssa Modifier Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Nonriverine Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest - Oak Dominated Modifier Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Forested Wetland Summer and winter.
- Southern and Central Appalachian Bog and Fen Summer.
- Eastern Great Plains Wet Meadow, Prairie, and Marsh Summer.
- Lower Mississippi River Bottomland Depressions - Forest Modifier Summer and winter.
- Western Great Plains Depressional Wetland Systems Summer and winter.
- Central Florida Herbaceous Pondshore Summer and winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Depression Pondshore Summer and winter.
- Mississippi River Bottomland Depression Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Blackwater Stream Floodplain Forest - Forest Modifier Summer and winter.
- Central Appalachian Riparian - Forest Modifier Summer and winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Herbaceous Modifier Summer and winter.
- South-Central Interior Large Floodplain - Herbaceous Modifier Summer and winter.
- Western Great Plains Floodplain Systems Summer and winter.
- Eastern Great Plains Floodplain Systems Summer.
- Mississippi River Riparian Forest Summer and winter.
- Mississippi River Low Floodplain (Bottomland) Forest Summer and winter.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Small Stream and River Forest Summer and winter.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Small Brownwater River Floodplain Forest Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Small Blackwater River Floodplain Forest Summer and winter.
- Red River Large Floodplain Forest Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Brownwater Stream Floodplain Forest Summer and winter.
- Mississippi River Floodplain and Riparian Forest Summer and winter.
- Ozark-Ouachita Riparian Summer.
- North-Central Interior Wet Flatwoods Summer.
- Lower Mississippi River Flatwoods Summer, only within 1,000 m of water, for banks and other nest sites.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Nonriverine Wet Hardwood Flatwoods Summer and winter.
Seasons in Alabama
- Year-round: nests here, in all 67 counties.
Also found in this habitat
Plants 714
Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in Alabama. Shared habitat, not food.
- Coastal Plain WillowSalix caroliniana
- Whitetop PitcherplantSarracenia leucophylla
- Common Three Square BulrushSchoenoplectus pungens
- Virginia SpiraeaSpiraea virginiana
- Wireleaf DropseedSporobolus teretifolius
- Swamp RedbayTamala palustris
- YellowrootXanthorhiza simplicissima
- Florida MapleAcer floridanum
- Box-elderAcer negundo
- Flaxleaf False FoxgloveAgalinis linifolia
- Virginia Chain-fernAnchistea virginica
- Big BluestemAndropogon gerardi
- Common Jack-in-the-pulpitArisaema triphyllum
- Arnoglossum diversifoliumArnoglossum diversifolium
- Common PawpawAsimina triloba
- Rattlesnake FernBotrypus virginianus
- Southern Waxy SedgeCarex glaucescens
- Cypress-swamp SedgeCarex joorii
- Cattail SedgeCarex typhina
- Bitternut HickoryCarya cordiformis
- Shellbark HickoryCarya laciniosa
- Southern CatalpaCatalpa bignonioides
- Common HackberryCeltis occidentalis
- Blue MistflowerConoclinium coelestinum
Wildlife 246
Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in Alabama. Not sighting records.
- Black-crowned Night-heronNycticorax nycticorax
- Chimney SwiftChaetura pelagica
- Common NighthawkChordeiles minor
- Great EgretArdea alba
- Great Horned OwlBubo virginianus
- Green HeronButorides virescens
- MallardAnas platyrhynchos
- Yellow-crowned Night-heronNyctanassa violacea
- American Black DuckAnas rubripes
- Bald EagleHaliaeetus leucocephalus
- Cooper's HawkAccipiter cooperii
- Eastern KingbirdTyrannus tyrannus
- European StarlingSturnus vulgaris
- Northern CardinalCardinalis cardinalis
- OspreyPandion haliaetus
- Red-winged BlackbirdAgelaius phoeniceus
- Sharp-shinned HawkAccipiter striatus
- Snowy EgretEgretta thula
- Tree SwallowTachycineta bicolor
- Turkey VultureCathartes aura
- American CootFulica americana
- American CrowCorvus brachyrhynchos
- American GoldfinchCarduelis tristis
- American KestrelFalco sparverius
NatureServe Explorer, CC BY 4.0. USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.
Sources
- USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models (2001)
- USGS GAP winter habitat model for Wood Duck Fresh water only
- USGS Gap Analysis Project range maps (2001), modeled by watershed; migratory gives no dates
- NatureServe Explorer (CC BY 4.0), habitat names
- US Census TIGER/Line counties
- Names follow the USGS Gap Analysis Project (2001)













































