100 years ago, these ducks were almost extinct.
These ducks are noisy! The male call is a thin, high "jeeeeee, while a female's call is "oo-eek" and a sharp "cr-r-ek, cr-e-ek" when they are worried.
When full grown, the wood duck or Carolina duck is about 19 inches in length with an average wingspan of 29 inches. Males have distinctive multi-colored iridescent feathers and red eyes. Females are less colorful, and are covered primarily with brown feathers. They have white eye-rings and a whitish throat. Both adults have crested heads.
They are found in wooded swamps, shallow lakes, marshes or ponds in eastern North America including Nebraska, the west coast of the United States and western Mexico. The northern populations migrate south for the winter. They overwinter in the southern United States near the Atlantic coast.
The wood duck feeds both by foraging in the water and by dabbling or walking on land. They mainly eat berries and aquatic seeds, but also insects and small aquatic invertebrates, making them omnivores.
They are shy and skittish. Breeding pairs will get together on wintering grounds. Males will gather in a flock and molt before the fall migration.
Their numbers are plentiful but are annually observed. Conservationists have utilized nest boxes to revitalize their numbers in the wild.
According to the National Audubon Society, the wood duck is a poster child for waterbird conservation efforts. This beautiful species has been brought back from the edge of extinction at the turn of the 19th century to today's healthy, increasing population and, thanks to the careful conservation work, these ducks are now being hunted again in limited quantities.
They can live to 15 years in the wild, but few live beyond 3-4 years.