Wood Ducks are the most colorful waterfowl in North America. They are beautiful, with iridescent green and purple heads, orange and white beaks, cinnamon breasts with tan flecks, rich feather patterns on their bodies, and unusual reddish eyes.

I captured this photo of a male Wood Duck while seated on the damp bank of a hidden north Louisiana pond surrounded by tall pines. For two frustrating hours, I watched Wood Ducks swim 600 feet away on the far, inaccessible side of the pond. Then, a Belted Kingfisher perched on a pine limb overhanging the pond about thirty feet away, catching my attention. The kingfisher engaged in a staring contest with my lens for twenty minutes, and I got some nice photos.

After the kingfisher flew, I looked up from the OVF of my Pentax K3-iii, and was surprised to see a male Wood Duck swimming toward a sunken log 50 feet in front of me! The Wood Duck swam beside the log and then jumped on top of it. I took this picture just as he began scratching and dripping water.

I captured this photo using a Pentax K3 Mark III body and a Pentax D-FA 150-450 mm lens, using an aperture of f/8, a shutter speed of 1/2000, ISO 400, and a focal length of 450 mm. On the K-3's APS-C sensor, the 450 mm lens is equivalent to 695 mm.

Using DxO PhotoLab, I cropped the photo to place the red eye at the upper-left intersection of the Rule of Thirds, and then used Pixelmator Pro to set the white balance.