Wood ducks are about 18 inches long and sport a crest, except the male when he is in the eclipse phase (late summer). The brilliant, iridescent male displays maroon, green, purple and white plumage, while the female is gray-brown above and white underneath. Sitting high on the water, woodies eat aquatic plants, seeds and nuts. Food is most abundant in early winter, but has become scarcer by late winter as the ducks and other animals deplete supplies.

Wood ducks court and pair throughout the winter, with water drinking being a sign of courtship. Mating takes place in the water, rather than in the nest. The drake rarely enters the nest, in fact. Woodies are monogamous during the season, but re-mating over winter is often necessary because of their 40% mortality rate. However, the birds may live to age 11. Females may begin to mate at one year of age. When the male and female pair, the hen becomes the leader. She immediately takes off in search of a nesting site with the male in tow, and she usually returns to the place where she was hatched to nest. She normally spends early mornings in search of a proper nest, approaching a potential site very cautiously and thoroughly examining the site before going inside. She perches outside, like a woodpecker, before going in—exactly what we observed when the pair first showed up in February.

After she selects the nest, the pair appears there soon after sunrise each morning. The hen enters and lays an egg, taking from a few minutes to 30 minutes. This goes on each day, with the hen laying a single egg each day until the clutch is complete She covers the eggs with debris before leaving. After about the sixth egg, the hen begins to pull down from her breast to add as insulation for the eggs. She lays 10-15 dull white eggs that are 2 inches long and 1.6 inches wide. The day after she lays the final egg, she begins incubation, which takes about 30 days. During incubation, the hen leaves the nest twice each day—about an hour in the early morning and in the late evening, to join her mate and search for food. She may also preen and socialize with other woodies.

The drake often follows his mate back to the nesting site; while she goes back to the eggs, he swims near the nest or perches in a tree for a few minutes. As the incubation period goes on, the pair's bond begins to weaken. By the third or fourth week, they have usually separated. Early in the incubation period, the hen may easily be flushed from the nest by a disturbance, but as the time goes on, she becomes much harder to flush from the nest.

About two days before hatching, the ducklings start to call from within the eggs. The hen responds with a soft call, so the ducklings are familiar with her voice when they are hatched. Laid over a period of about two weeks, the eggs all hatch within a few hours of each other. The peak hatching period is April and early May; hatching most often occurs in the afternoon. The hen spends the evening and night with the ducklings before leaving the nest early the following morning. After about an hour she returns and covers the young in her feathers. After some time, she goes to the hole and checks for danger. If there is none, she drops to the water or ground below the nest and calls her brood. The little ones peep back and begin to jump toward the entrance until one lands near the hole. Its clawed feet grasp the rough wood and its pulls itself up; then it appears in the opening and leaps into the air. Others follow while the hen calls louder and with more excitement, until they are all outside.

When the ducklings reach water, they quickly swim to their mother's side. After all are together, she guides them to vegetation in which they can stay in safety. Their stay in the nest is over unless a female should return some time to nest. The nesting site might not be the site where the young are raised. They may travel over a mile, by land and water, to reach the preferred site. That site must offer the right amount of space, food and cover—usually at least 10 acres with areas of emergent vegetation through which open water passages provide a means to move about. The ducklings eat insects for protein—flies, beetles, dragonflies, moths and caterpillars. Duckweed is also an important food. The ideal site seems to be a large beaver pond, as it offers shallow water, ample food and good cover.