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The Mallard is probably the best-known and readily recognized of all ducks. Mallards are very tolerant of humans. The male mallard has shiny green feathers on his head and neck and a purple breast with very curly tail feathers, bright orange feet and a yellow bill while the female is brown and white, has a blue wing patch, a mottled orange and brown bill and orange feet. Mallards are agile fliers who can take off almost vertically. They swim with their tail held above the water and, when they are alarmed, they spring directly out of the water and into the air. The sudden flight of Mallards can make quite a spectacular sight. During the summer, Mallards spend much time asleep on water banks.

Mallards can range in size from 20-28 inches long with a wingspan between 30 and 40 inches. The male is larger than the female. Mallards feed by "dabbling" and upending, meaning that they tip their bodies into water, bill first, tail in the air, to forage for food from under the waters surface. The wild Mallard is the ancestor of most domestic ducks. The female is called a hen, the male is called a drake, and the young are called ducklings. Although mallard ducks have been known to live as long as sixteen years of age, most of them only live for one or two years. Mallards are also called: Common Mallard; common wild duck; curly-tail; domestic duck; English duck; French duck; gray duck; gray mallard; greenhead and stock duck. The scientific name is (Anas platyrhynchos) from Latin Anas (duck) and from Greek Platys (broad or flat) and rynchos (beak).) "Mallard" relates to maleness from Old French "Wild drake" from masle: male.

 

Voice

This is a noisy species. The familiar "quack" of ducks is heard from the female mallard, It is named the "decrescendo call", and on a quiet day can be heard for miles. A female will give the call when she wants to bring other ducks to her, such as her ducklings, and as a result it is also known as the "hail call". Males utter a soft, reedy, low-pitched kwek-kwek or a quiet, low crrib.

Diet

Mallards are dabbling ducks. The mallard feeds by "tipping up" and reaching below the surface with its bill in the shallows of ponds, lakes, streams and swamps. Mallards can feed anywhere that water is a foot or two deep, although they can reach for food in deeper water if necessary. They do not usually dive below the surface, except that young birds or molting (flightless) adults sometimes dive to avoid danger Mallards are primarily vegetarians and feed almost exclusively on plant matter. Their diet is 90% vegetarian, consisting mainly of seeds of grasses, sedges, pondweeds and other aquatic vegetation with lesser quantities of insects (including mosquito larvae), worms, slugs, snails, frogs, small fish and various kinds of shellfish. Mallards eat the roots of wild lilies, reeds and cattails, duckweed, and seeds from wild millet, rice, smartweed and other plants. They also take advantage of human food sources, such as gleaning grain from crops. Flocks often feed in early morning and late afternoon in nearby harvested fields, returning to marshes and creeks to spend the night. Egg laying females may eat 2 times more animal food than males or non-laying females.

Mating

Mallards mature quickly and may breed under 12 months of age. To breed, the male attracts the female mate by ruffling his bright feathers. The breeding habitat is wetland-open water. Mallard courtship starts in the fall, and by midwinter pairs have formed. Mated pairs migrate northward together, heading for the female's place of origin. Pair bonding starts as early as October and continues through March. Although Mallards are seasonally monogamous, the male stays with the female until incubation is well underway, then leaves to join a flock of other males to begin the annual molt. Most mallard hens breed as yearlings, but they may not have much success; studies show that older hens have much lower duckling mortality than yearlings. Five to fourteen eggs are laid at daily intervals. Incubation begins when the clutch is complete and lasts for 26 to 30 days. The female incubates the eggs by herself until they hatch some time between March and July. The ducklings all hatch within 24 hours, mostly during the day. The ducklings are lead to water as soon as their soft, downy feathers are dry and they first fly about 2 months after hatching. The nest is abandoned after the ducklings are hatched.

After the breeding season, mallards form flocks and migrate from northern lattitudes to warmer southern areas. There they wait and feed until the breeding season starts again. Some mallards, however, may choose to stay through the winter in areas where food and shelter are abundant; these mallards make up resident populations.

 

Nesting Behavior

In March and April the Mallard begins its migration northward towards its breeding grounds, which are typically in the numerous lakes of the prairie provinces of Canada or northern United States. It may nest as early as February along the Pacific Coast where it is warmer. Once Mallards arrive on their nesting territory in the spring, the females build cup-like nests made of grass, leaves and sedge on the ground near lakes and reservoirs. They are lined with duck down (delicate feathers).
Mallards generally avoid salt water and prefer any shallow body of fresh water.
It is important that the nests be well-placed in dense vegetation to avoid detection from predators. They nest in such places as under boulders, in tree holes, in the crotch of trees or in open areas. The nest is usually built on the ground among dead grasses, reeds, edges of lakes, reservoirs, on muskrat houses, in marshes or marshy ground and sometimes far from the water on higher ground. They also nest among dense stands of reeds, on islands or bulrushes of swampy creeks, or even in the hollow of a tree.

If you find a Mallard's nest on your property and don't see the mother on the eggs, don't necessarily worry. Ducks lay an egg every day or two until they have a full clutch (usually 8 to 15) of pale olive-green eggs; only then will the mother start to sit on them. Having camouflaged plumage, the female does all the incubation and looking after the young. It takes the eggs about 28 days to hatch from when she starts sitting. The female turns each egg every day. When they hatch, she will soon lead them to a nearby body of water. The new ducklings are able follow the female into the water within hours after hatching. The father takes no part in caring for the eggs or young. In winter the Mallard migrates to the southern part of its range but does not nest there.

Range

The Mallard is undoubtedly the most abundant duck in the world which lives throughout the temperate and sub-tropical areas of North America, Europe and Asia. It also frequents Central America and the Caribbean. Nearly 10 million live in North America, and millions more are found in Eurasia. Since the Mallard is the ancestor of the common white domestic duck, still more can be added to the total. The Mallard is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters further south. They will become non-migratory if food and shelter are available year round.

The Mallard has one of the most extensive breeding ranges of any duck in North America, extending across the northern one-third of the USA, and up to the Bering Sea. Mallards are very common throughout North America, much of Europe, Asia and Africa. As migratory waterfowl, they winter south of Canada, throughout the United States south to Central America. Mallards arrive on nesting grounds in northern parts of the United States and in Canada between March and April. Wherever Mallards are located, they are most likely found on shallow bodies of fresh water, on lakes, marshes and even flooded fields. Among the dabbling ducks, mallards are one of the latest fall migrants. They also have the most extended migration period, which lasts from late summer to early winter.

 

Predators

The mallard has only three defenses: swimming, flying, and camouflage. Ducklings provide food for numerous predators including large fish, bobcats, coyotes, and various other mammals. Hawks and other predators eat the eggs and hatchlings.