What Does a Wood Duck Look Like?
MALE Wood Duck at UCDavis Arboretum. Photo by Lois Richter:
Wood Ducks are native to our area (Yolo County in northern California), and are one of our most exotic-looking birds. They arealso very unusual in being ducks that NEST IN TREES!
Once on the decline, Wood Ducks are making a comeback due, in part, to the introduction of nesting boxes on many farms, lakes, and waterways. Nesting boxes are needed to replace the "dead trees" which used to offer holes for nesting, but have now been removed.
Do not confuse these beautiful birds with their exotic distant cousin, the Mandarin Duck, which IS NOT a species native to our area! (Some Mandarins have been introduced in the north state and escaped to the wild, however; where they share habitat with our Wood Ducks.)
More photos available on USGS site.