Appreciation for the Magnificent Mallard
© 2007 P. Nash
“A common duck.”
“The world’s most familiar duck.”
“The best place to find a mallard is almost anywhere.”
“Greenheads.”
Seems to me some of these words and phrases associated with mallards – while not completely deprecatory – are perhaps edging in that direction, bordering on mallards being considered rather ordinary and ho-humish.
But if binocular-magnified, the male, or drake, mallard is an extremely colorful and handsome fellow. Bright and elaborately patterned, he has a glossy iridescent dark-green to blue-green head, a narrow white collar, or neck ring, and brilliant chestnut breast.
Most top-side feathers are grayish and ever-so soft appearing, while at the rear is a sort of white shelf-like tail with black center feathers, two of which are often uniquely up-curled. Add to this palette a yellow bill and bright orange legs and webbed feet.
Is this guy drab and dull? I don’t think so.
Now the female. She’s definitely not as colorful and showy as befits her progeny-producing and rearing role. A generally brownish, mottled, drab duck, she does have a pretty metallic blue-violet colored area with black and white trim on each side, as does the male.
Walt Disney’s Donald Duck was supposedly patterned after a mallard. As Donald, mallards have short legs widely positioned on the sides of their bodies, which lend to that distinct waddle when they walk. It’s the females that are the oft-mimicked, loud “quack-quack-quack, quack, quack-quack” quackers.
You say you’ve seen white mallards? Or mallard-like ducks which have unusual coloration? Keep in mind there are domesticated forms that are entirely white, and inter-breeding does occur. So if it looks like a mallard and walks like a mallard, but is strangely hued, there is a good chance it is a mallard – a hybrid.
Gregarious, as most ducks, mallards are usually not seen solitarily, but grouped together. We often see them in watery fields and ponds, where one of their more endearing and attention-garnering behaviors is their upending in one to two feet of water to reach for and gather seeds, weeds and plant life beneath the surface. With rapid paddling to maintain their tipped-up positions, this is delightful to watch.
There are usually more males than females encountered in groups. So at times, two males will be seen in the company of a female. Males are sexually gregarious, and don’t need coaxing to temporarily abandon a mate in pursuit of another female. There can also be much commotion in a mating group – competitive chases as males seek out and vie for females. Coupling can be so overly-zealous that females may actually be drowned.
But the successful female breeders go on to build usually well concealed nests, most often on the ground. As they are not one of the more fearful nor secretive of ducks, they have been known to nest in house gutters – even window wells!
They’ll line these nests with grasses or reeds and copious amounts of down plucked from their own lower breasts. They lay 9 – 13 eggs in a one-a-day pattern and incubate them nearly 30 days.
And the hatchlings, after drying, are immediately led to the nearest water by mother – another delightful sight to view. She’ll care for the ducklings about two months, at which time they’ll take to the air and be on their own.
Dad? Donald?? Nowhere to be found.
For centuries, the adaptable mallard has been watched, admired, domesticated, bred and hunted. Harvested in great numbers, hunters find them fast-flying and sporting, as well as tasty dinner fare. Times are set aside each fall to hunt them.
A sad associated scenario here is that lead shot, used in the past by bird hunters, and to this day by some, can be inadvertently picked up as mallards bottom feed. Lead poisoning and death can follow. Thankfully, responsible hunters avoid lead shot.
Written by Pat Nash, Beach Watcher Class ‘94
Editor Note. Scientific Name: Anas platyrhynchos
More information: Drilling, N., R. Titman, and F. McKinney. 2002. Mallard. In The Birds of North America, No. 658 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.), Philadelphia, PA.
Published February 2008