Ubiquitous Unique? Birds: Wood Duck

"The Wood Duck is one of the most stunningly pretty of all waterfowl"... agreed!
Last Sunday, during my stepson's regatta on the Erie Canal, I passed some time taking what I thought were ubiquitous bird photos. On that day, however, an uncommon fellow popped up in the midst of the standard fuzzy ducklings and brown-streaked females. The male Wood Duck, according to Allaboutbirds.com from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, in addition to being one of the most attractive water fowl, "live(s) in wooded swamps, where they nest in holes in trees or in nest boxes put up around lake margins." Though humid last weekend, I would hardly characterize the area along the Erie Canal as "swampy," but there he was nonetheless!


While clearly the male is a wood duck, I'm not too sure about his paramour.
This particular wood duck seemed to have mated with the adult female Mallard, pictured with him above. The two of them, along with a gaggle of ducklings, spent much of the morning splashing along the edge of the canal way avoiding oars and looking for food.

Proud Mama and Papa keep their eyes on the babies...
While the female Wood Duck looks very similar to a Mallard, the absence of the white outline around the eyes leads me to believe it was not a wood duck but rather a Mallard. I wonder how common it is to cross-breed between these similar species of bird?