[2][3] The wood duck was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Anas sponsa.

[2] The adult male has stunning multicolored iridescent plumage and red eyes, with a distinctive white flare down the neck.

[11] The birds are year-round residents in parts of its southern range, but the northern populations migrate south for the winter.

[13] Due to their attractive plumage, they are also popular in waterfowl collections and as such are frequently recorded in Great Britain as escapees—populations have become temporarily established in Surrey in the past, but are not considered to be self-sustaining in the fashion of the closely related mandarin duck.

[14] Given its native distribution, the species is also a potential natural vagrant to Western Europe and there have been records in areas such as Cornwall, Scotland and the Isles of Scilly, which some observers consider may relate to wild birds; however, given the wood duck's popularity in captivity, it would be extremely difficult to prove their provenance.

[citation needed] Their breeding habitat is wooded swamps, shallow lakes, marshes, ponds and creeks in the eastern United States, the west coast of the United States, some adjacent parts of southern Canada, and the west coast of Mexico.

[16] Females line their nests with feathers and other soft materials, and the elevation provides some protection from predators such as raccoons, owls, and hawks.

Chicks can jump from as high as 50 feet, surviving by landing either in water, or on top of soft material such as leaf litter.

By enforcing existing hunting regulations and protecting woodland and marsh habitat, wood duck populations began to rebound starting in the 1920s.

[20] A synopsis of evidence from multiple studies performed by Williams et al. (2020) concluded that providing artificial nesting sites for wildfowl, including wood ducks, is beneficial.

[23] Wood duck boxes have been found to be less effective than natural, hollow, dead trees but remain overall beneficial for the population.

Fulda, Minnesota, has adopted the wood duck as an unofficial mascot, and a large number of nest boxes can be found in the area.

During the open waterfowl season, U.S. hunters have been allowed to take only two wood ducks per day in the Atlantic and Mississippi Flyways.