Are these wood ducks or another type?

Saw these at the reservoir earlier today - I think the female with the white eye ring is a wood duck, not sure about the male with the purple head. They were sunning with a few mallards. I'm having trouble uploading both at once, so I'll split them up.

Here's the female.

Top one is not a wood duck - it's a blue headed mallard. 2nd one is a female wood duck

Thanks, joy. I've seen mallards with blue heads, but never one quite this purple. Interesting! Now I'll go read up on duck color genetics.  

probably the angle of the light hitting the iridescent feathers.

Very nice pictures.

Thanks, dickf3 - today was a good day for animal shots at the reservoir. The turtles were out sunning and there were some waterfowl that weren't Canada geese! I didn't see the black water snake, though - maybe it isn't warm enough yet for it to be out and about.

This is one of the wood duck couples who hang in Memorial Park.

Great pic, TL!

marylago said:


Great pic, TL!

Thanks, @marylago!