Wood Duck: Birding in Louisiana Pt 4

This is such a fabulous duck that I want to do a post on this bird alone. Although it is fairly common it can be quite elusive and difficult to see as it lives in swampy areas and often hangs about under overhanging branches and vegetation. It helps if you know where to look. There are plenty of nest boxes in lakes in southern Mississippi that have been erected to tempt this species but as they are not breeding right now they were not much use in locating the birds. Most of the photos that I took were of the male birds as these are stunning...I wouldn't even know where to start writing a description as there seems to be so many colours and patterns. It is reminiscent of the Mandarin Duck that is now seen regularly in Britain but I reckon that the male Wood Duck has the edge over the Mandarin for sheer bonkers plumage. The female is OK I suppose!

Wood Duck Aix sponsa