Wood Duck - Aix sponsa

Identification Tips:

1. Length: 13.5 inches Wingspan: 28 inches
2. A medium-sized duck with a long crest on head
3. Long-winged and long-tailed
4. Blue-green speculum with white rear border

Adult male alternate:

1. Alternate plumage worn from Fall-through early summer
2. Red bill
3. Red eye
4. Green head
5. Striking white stripes about face and crest with a large white throat patch and "fingerlike" extensions onto cheek and neck
6. Chestnut breast and neck with vertical white stripe at lower margin
7. Golden flanks bordered above by a white flank stripe
8. White belly
9. Iridescent dark green-blue back and wings

Adult male basic:

1. In basic plumage, the male resembles the female, but often retains the distinctive neck patch and red bill

Adult female:

1. Gray bill
2. White teardrop shaped patch around eye
3. White throat
4. Gray-brown head and neck
5. Gray-brown breast stippled with white and fading to a white belly
6. Dark brown back

Juvenal plumage:

1. Gray bill
2. Female similar to adult female
3. Males similar to adult females, but with white neck patch

Similar species: