The Wood Duck

Cornell's All About Birds has this to say about the Wood Duck:

The Wood Duck is one of the most stunningly pretty of all waterfowl. Males are iridescent chestnut and green, with ornate patterns on nearly every feather; the elegant females have a distinctive profile and delicate white pattern around the eye. These birds live in wooded swamps, where they nest in holes in trees or in nest boxes put up around lake margins. They are one of the few duck species equipped with strong claws that can grip bark and perch on branches.

This photo by Laurie Lawler, taken at Hagerman NWR this week, exemplifies the beautiful bird.

An Original Duckumentary, a PBS Nature production, is excerpted on youtube and provides an entertaining view of fledgling Wood Ducks leaving their nest high in a tree.  According to Cornell, the nest may be as high as 50 feet off the ground! There may be anywhere from 6 to 16 chicks in a brood and they are ready to leave the nest the next day after they hatch.


The Wood Duck is the only North American duck that regularly produces two broods in one year.  They are mostly herbivores but will also eat caterpillars, snails, and insects.  Wood Ducks are present year-round at Hagerman but not always seen. These sightings have been reported in the Hagerman NWR Bird Census for 2017, to date,  by Jack Chiles:

March 14 - 3; March 21 - 2; March 28 - 6
May 2 - 2; May 23 - 6
June 13 -2; June 27 - 2
July 11 - 1; July 18 - 3; July 11 - 6
Aug. 8 - 4; Aug. 15 - 7; Aug. 22 -  2; Aug 29 - 3
Sept. 5 - 2; Sept. 12 - 1; Sept. 19 - 9; Sept. 26 - 2
October 3 - 2;  Oct. 17 - 11
Nov. 7 - 3