These ducks have massive pectoral muscles that allow them to explode straight out of the water. The dabbler ducks usually tip up for food that is one or two feet beneath the surface. They eat plants such as corn, oats, and other grain crops. The mallards usually eat mid morning. The young of the mallards is led food sources by the hen and the young usually eats insects.
Mallards usually choose places next to water that has high grasses.
If they choose a place that has contaminated water it will cause them long-term problems. Their normal nests sites are about 100 yards away from water, but some are as far as one and a half miles from water. The areas preferred are dead grass spots, areas on leaves, small islands, potholes, willow and asper grooves, roadsides, and pastures. Some even build their nests over water on muskrat houses or floating vegetation. They build in dense covering up to 24 inches high.