Wood Ducks

Someday I will get a better shot of a wood duck, but for now I'll take what I can get.

Hyperion and I were hiking in a rarely visited area of an island in the Mississippi when I photographed a passing pair of wood ducks.

They were far away and obscured by trees, but with the magic of digital zoom, we can see enough markings to know what we are looking at.

Wood ducks are beautiful little ducks, and the males are iconic for their brightly colored plumage, with green and purple on their heads and white stripes.  They have red eyes, with red and yellow on their bills.

Wood ducks have shorter wings than other ducks, which help them fly though woodlands, where they nest in tree cavities, and in wood duck boxes.  Their claws (rare in ducks) help them grip the bark where they perch.

They prefer shallow, marshy waters and ponds, where they can feed easily.  Besides aquatic food sources, they also eat acorns.

Wood ducks float higher on the water than other ducks, so that is something to remember when trying to identify them at a distance.

Something unique about wood ducks is that they are the only North American duck to have two broods per season.

Wood ducks are also called summer ducks and Carolina ducks.