On land it walks or runs with greater ease than most ducks. It frequently perches in trees. In summer the wood duck feeds in streams and ponds on aquatic plants and insects. It is especially fond of duckweed, and it eats seeds and tubers of sedges, grasses, smartweeds, wild rice. Wood ducks smetimes wander deep into the woods for acorns, beechnuts, hickory nuts, grapes and berries.
Wood ducks eat more fruit and nuts than any other American duck.
A male wood duck shot in 1959 in Minnesota had 56 acorns of bur oak in its throat and crop. Wood ducks also eat many aquatic insects, some minnows, frogs, tadpoles, snails and small salamanders. Many wood ducks court and pair in fall and winter when most are on inland waters of southern United States. The female leads the drake back to the region where she was hatched or to the area where she nested the year before. Family groups often form small flocks of 15-20 in migration.