Male wood duck. Susan Michael Barrett, Pineneedle section of Wildewood.
Here is a video on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds website of a pair of wood ducks swimming in a pond. This is a sight that anyone who lives in Wildewood Springs might see.
Wood ducks are called perching ducks because of their highly developed toes and claws that allow them to grasp and balance on tree branches.
Wood ducks are cavity nesters, preferring to nest in trees. They are “uniquely equipped to fly through a tangle of branches to reach their nest site…they have the largest eye of any duck, a broad wing for maneuvering, and are aided by a tail that is long and wide.”
