On a quiet morning in Atlanta, a small team from the City’s Department of Watershed Management headed out to a local waterway with tools in hand and a clear mission: to give wood ducks a safe place to raise their young.
Led by Joey Rigdon from the Natural Resources section, the crew spent the day installing specially designed nesting boxes for these colorful birds. For years, Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources has tracked wood duck hatchling rates across the state — but until now, those efforts hadn’t extended into the heart of Atlanta.
“We wanted to change that,” said Rigdon. “These boxes help us collect valuable data on wood ducks right here in the city, and that information goes back to the state and our community partners.”
Each nesting box is carefully built with three key parts: a tall metal pole, a predator guard to keep out raccoons and snakes, and the wooden box itself, designed specifically for wood ducks. Inside, bedding material provides a safe spot for the ducks to lay their eggs.
The team will return later in the year to clean the boxes and count hatchlings, adding Atlanta’s numbers to the statewide database. As Kelly Kapowski from the Natural Resources section explained, wood ducks are Georgia’s most common duck species — and they’re cavity nesters, meaning they rely on safe, enclosed spaces like these boxes to raise their young.
With each installation, Atlanta joins a larger effort to support wildlife, improve habitats, and make sure the next generation of wood ducks has a home.
