Wood Duck, female
Aix sponsa
Wood Duck · Prospect Park · 23 May 2026
A female Wood Duck on Prospect Park Lake, the plainer half of a pair that will nest in a hole in one of the old trees at the water's edge. Wood Ducks are birds of wooded ponds and swamps across the continent, and the female does all the sitting.
None of the drake's iridescence, but a field mark of her own: a bold white, teardrop-shaped eye-ring that stands out even at a distance on an otherwise soft grey-brown head. The muted colouring isn't a lesser version of the male's plumage so much as its own adaptation, camouflage suited to weeks spent motionless on a nest.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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