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):
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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:
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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:
This one has probably escaped too, or been deliberately releasd (many ducks are released for shooting in this area, but mainly native species):
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escaped or released male Wood Duck, Leathes Ham, Lowestoft (Suffolk, UK), 8th April 2012
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And finally some that are still in captivity where most birds resemble their wild ancestors but many are selectively bred to show a variety of colour mutations, the most common being paler than normal (sometimes known as 'blond').
