Furtive and wary, every wood duck I've encountered in the wild unsurprisingly flees as I try to approach and photograph it. So I was surprised when the lone male reported visiting Phoenix' central Grenada Park displayed none of this behavior.
He initially blended in with the much more numerous mallards and ring-necked ducks that frequent the city park's lake, all begging for handouts by human visitors. Clearly he wanted to remain unnoticed. But when it was feeding time, he joined the commotion and rushed toward the hands that were tossing seeds at the waterfowl. Up close, it was easy to see the crisp markings and bright colors for which he's famous. Dropping his normally cautious behavior, maybe he was as hungry as the other ducks.
Another surprising quality of this wood duck was that he was alone, without others of his species. And just as unexpected was that this bird's lake was not surrounded by the dense deciduous woods that normally comprise his habitat. Instead he was residing at a large body of water thinly ringed by tall palm trees.
Maybe this park is an infrequent winter home for him and other wood ducks, or he's on a short layover while migrating to summer breeding grounds further north. The one thing I'm sure of is that he's an awfully pretty duck.
He initially blended in with the much more numerous mallards and ring-necked ducks that frequent the city park's lake, all begging for handouts by human visitors. Clearly he wanted to remain unnoticed. But when it was feeding time, he joined the commotion and rushed toward the hands that were tossing seeds at the waterfowl. Up close, it was easy to see the crisp markings and bright colors for which he's famous. Dropping his normally cautious behavior, maybe he was as hungry as the other ducks.
Another surprising quality of this wood duck was that he was alone, without others of his species. And just as unexpected was that this bird's lake was not surrounded by the dense deciduous woods that normally comprise his habitat. Instead he was residing at a large body of water thinly ringed by tall palm trees.
Maybe this park is an infrequent winter home for him and other wood ducks, or he's on a short layover while migrating to summer breeding grounds further north. The one thing I'm sure of is that he's an awfully pretty duck.
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| Male wood duck with larger male mallards. |
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| Male wood duck with male ringed-neck duck. |
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| Male wood duck. |
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| Male wood duck. |
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| Male wood duck. |
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| Male wood duck. |
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| Male wood duck. |
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