A few hens raise two broods, but the vast majority raise only one. In Maryland, scientists found that half of the young were killed in their first month. The brood begins to break up after 6 weeks or so, and the young can fly when two months old. After leaving his incubating mate, the drake woody joins other male wood ducks in the dense cover of a swamp or wooded pond. In late summer or early fall, a second molt begins, restoring the normal plumages.
Wood ducks migrate south for the winter.
Some seek out common roosting and feeding sites, grouping in flocks of less than a hundred to several thousand. Pennsylvania band surveys show most of our homegrown woodies winter in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida. In the early 1900s, the wood duck was nearing extinction. Many woodland ponds, the species' favorite habitat, had been drained. Widespread logging had removed the mature trees needed for nesting.