Wood Ducks at a nest cavity
Aix sponsa
Wood Duck · San Diego · 6 March 2026
A pair of Wood Ducks investigating a natural hollow in a broken trunk beside a San Diego pond. Wood Ducks are birds of wooded water across North America, and they nest in tree cavities, sometimes thirty feet or more off the ground, which is what this pair is checking.
The ducklings' first act in life is to jump from the entrance to the ground or water below, bouncing off the impact essentially unharmed. The male, on the left, carries by far the more ornate plumage of the two; the female's subtler brown-and-white is built for sitting on eggs unnoticed.
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