Wood Duck (Carolina Wood Duck) Aix sponsa
This species is popular in collections and escapes frequently. Though it has not yet become established in the UK like Mandarins have, breeding attempts do take place occasionally. Wild vagrants from North America might occur occasionally and one or two individuals in the west of the country or Northern Isles have been mooted as potential vagrants, but with so many escaped birds on the loose anyone would have a hard job persuading any records committee to take one seriously.
The first pair of photos below show an escaped individual (apparently known to have escaped, though some have optimistically suggested it might be a wild vagrant):
%20L.JPG "Wood Duck, Porthloo, 3-Oct-07") |
%20L.JPG "Wood Duck, Porthloo, 3-Oct-07") |
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escaped male Wood Duck, Porthloo Duckpond, St Mary's (Scilly, UK), 3rd October 2007
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The next ones are wild birds photographed in their natural range in North America:
%20L.JPG "Wood Duck, Reifel, 8-Sep-06") |
%20L.JPG "Wood Duck, Reifel, 8-Sep-06") |
%20L.JPG "Wood Duck, Reifel, 8-Sep-06") |
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Wood Ducks, Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary (BC, Canada), 8th September 2006
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This one is (presumably) an escaped bird:
%20L.JPG "Wood Duck, Swanton Morley, 13-Sep-08") |
%20L.JPG "Wood Duck, Swanton Morley, 13-Sep-08") |
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presumed escaped eclipse male Wood Duck, Swanton Morley (Norfolk, UK), 13th September 2008
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%20L.JPG "Wood Duck, Swanton Morley, 16-Aug-08") |
%20L.JPG "Wood Duck, Swanton Morley, 16-Aug-08") |
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presumed escaped male Wood Duck, Swanton Morley (Norfolk, UK), 16th August 2008
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%20L.JPG "Wood Duck, Swanton Morley, 9-Aug-08") |
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presumed escaped male Wood Duck, Swanton Morley (Norfolk, UK), 18th October (left) and 9th August 2008 (right)
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And finally some that haven't escaped yet:
%20L.JPG "Wood Duck, Blakeney Collection, 15-Oct-11") |
%20L.JPG "Wood Duck, Blakeney Collection, 15-Oct-11") |
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captive male Wood Duck, Blakeney Collection (Norfolk, UK), 15th October 2011
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%20L.JPG "Wood Duck, Blakeney Collection, 28-Feb-09") |
%20L.JPG "Wood Duck, Blakeney Collection, 28-Feb-09") |
%20L.JPG "Wood Duck, Blakeney Collection, 28-Feb-09") |
%20L.JPG "Wood Duck, Blakeney Collection, 28-Feb-09") |
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captive male and female Wood Ducks, Blakeney Collection (Norfolk, UK), 28th February 2009
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%20L.JPG "Wood Duck, Blakeney Collection, 4-Dec-10") |
%20L.JPG "Wood Duck, Blakeney Collection, 4-Dec-10") |
%20L.JPG "Wood Duck, Blakeney Collection, 4-Dec-10") |
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captive male Wood Ducks, Blakeney Collection (Norfolk, UK), 4th December 2010
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%20T.JPG "Mandarin")
%20T.JPG "Mandarin")