Mallard Duck
Brian DeGiovanni (2001)

Anas platyrhyncos

The mallard duck is part of the order Anseriformes, family Anatidae, and the Latin binomial is Anas platyrhyncos. These ducks are the most common in the world, and are thought to be the sole ancestral form of domesticated ducks. One can find mallards in Europe, Asia, and North and Central America. There are 10 million mallards in North America alone. In these regions they are practically everywhere. They inhabit any open water with a supply of vegetation nearby including large marshes to small river bends, bays and even ditches and city ponds. These ducks can be found on campus in or around the Mill Stream. The male mallards, drakes, have a green head, white neck ring chestnut breast, and grayish body. Their inner feathers are a metallic purplish blue with white border in the front and back. The females, hens, are mottled brown with a white tail and purplish blue speculum. The size of the mallard can range between 46-69 cm in length and have short legs. Their wingspan is roughly 90cm. Other features include the front 3 toes are webbed and they have a flat, wide bill. The drakes voice is soft and reedy, while the hens is the familiar “quack.” These ducks can live up to 15 years of age, but many only live 1-2 years due to the lack of sufficient defenses. The defenses they do have include swimming, flying, and camouflage. When mallards are alarmed, they typically take off immediately, unlike the geese, which skim across the water before taking off.

The diet of the mallards is roughly 90% vegetarian with meat being consumed occasionally. Mallards are surface feeders. These ducks are not dabbling; they rarely dive when foraging. Adults typically eat roots, stems, and seeds of aquatic plants, waste grain, snails, insects, and even small fish. The young normally eat aquatic insects. Predators of mallard ducks include hawks, falcons, turtles, and man. Oil spills and pesticides also kill many ducks.

The breeding in North America ranges from Alaska and Quebec south to southern California, Virginia, Texas, and Northern Mexico. They usually winter throughout the United States and south to Central America and the West Indies. The courtship of the mallards begins in the fall, and by midwinter mating pairs are formed. These pairs migrate together heading for the female’s place of origin. The density in those areas is usually less than 10 pairs per square mile. The male stays with the female until incubation is well underway, about a week, and then joins up with a flock of males for molting. The males are seasonally monogamous. In the early spring, 8-12 light olive-green eggs are often laid in a down lined nest. This nest is typically placed some distance from water and has occasionally be seen up in trees. The mallards defend the territory around their nest during the mating season. The eggs incubate for 26-30 days. The downy young are a blackish brown color with a yellowish face and under parts, and a black line through the eye. These young are shy and intractable, but they have become tame in city parks and in reservoirs. The young follow the sound of the mother not the sight. The young can usually fly by two months of age, and mature rapidly (can breed in less than a year).

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