Mallard

The Mallard (*Anas platyrhynchos*) is a duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Falkland Islands, and South Africa. This duck belongs to the waterfowl family Anatidae. Males have purple patches on their wings, while the females (hens or ducks) have mainly brown-speckled plumage. Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to live in groups or flocks of varying sizes. This species is the main ancestor of most breeds of domestic ducks.

The female lays eight to 13 creamy white eggs. Incubation takes 27 to 28 days and fledging takes 50 to 60 days. The ducklings are fully capable of swimming as soon as they hatch.

Description

The mallard is a medium-sized waterfowl species that is often slightly heavier than most other ducks The breeding male mallard has a glossy bottle-green head and a white collar that demarcates the head from the purple-tinged brown breast, grey-brown wings, and a pale grey belly. The rear of the male is black, with white-bordered dark tail feathers. The bill of the male is a yellowish-orange tipped with black, with that of the female generally darker and ranging from black to mottled orange and brown

Both male and female mallards have purple-blue speculum feathers edged with white, which are prominent in flight or at rest but temporarily shed during the annual summer moult. Upon hatching, the plumage of the duckling is yellow on the underside and face (with streaks by the eyes) and black on the back (with some yellow spots) all the way to the top and back of the head. Its legs and bill are also black. Two months after hatching, the fledgling period has ended, and the duckling is now a juvenile. The duckling is able to fly 50–60 days after hatching.

A noisy species, the female has the deep *quack* associated with ducks. Male mallards make a sound similar to that of the female, a typical *quack*, but it is deeper and quieter compared to that of the female. When incubating a nest, or when offspring are present, females vocalise differently, making a call that sounds like a truncated version of the usual quack. This maternal vocalisation is highly attractive to their young. The repetition and frequency modulation of these *quacks* form the auditory basis for species identification in offspring, a process known as acoustic conspecific identification. In addition, females hiss if the nest or offspring are threatened or interfered with. When taking off, the wings of a mallard produce a characteristic faint whistling noise.

Behaivour

Feeding

The mallard is omnivorous and very flexible in its choice of food. It eats gastropods, insects crustaceans, worms, many varieties of seeds and plant matter, and roots and tubers.

Predators and threats

mallards of all ages (but especially young ones) and in all locations must contend with a wide diversity of predators including Raptors and Owls Corvids Snakes Raccoons Opossums Skunks Turtles Felids and Canids, the last two including domestic ones. The most predators of adult mallards are Red Foxes and the faster or larger birds of prey, Peregrine Falcons and Eagles. In North America, adult mallards face no fewer than 15 species of birds of prey, from Short Eared Owls to huge Bald and Golden Eagles and about a dozen species of mammalian predators, not counting several more avian and mammalian predators who threaten eggs and nestlings

Mallards are also preyed upon by other waterside predators, such as Herons and the European Herring Gull. Crows are also known to kill ducklings and adults on occasion. Also, mallards may be attacked by larger ducks such as Swans and Geese during the breeding season, and are frequently driven off by these birds over territorial disputes. Mute Swans have been known to attack or even kill mallards if they feel that the ducks pose a threat to their offspring.