Ben's Waterfowl

Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)
Description:
Size: 23-24.5 inches
Weight: 2.4- 2.7 lbs
Wingspan: 32–39 in
There are 2 subspecies:
• Photo 1 Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos platyrhynchos)
• Photo 2 Greenland or Northern Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos conboschas)
Male : in breeding dress is unmistakable. The glossy head and upper neck are brilliant green, separated from the rich chestnut of the breast by a white collar. The rest of the underparts and the sides are light grey. back and wings of the bird are greyish brown, with a purplish-blue speculum, or wing patch, on the wing. The whitish tail has black above and below it. Two central black feathers that curve back above the tail give the breeding male its characteristic curly-tailed appearance. The male has a yellow bill and orange legs and feet.
Female: is a much less colorful bird. Its back is mottled brown, its breast heavily streaked with buff and darker brown. It is best recognized by the white-bordered speculum on the wing, which is similar to that of the male. The female has an orange to light yellowish green bill, sometimes blotched with black, and its legs and feet are orange.
Juvenile: Darker overall and more heavily streaked on underparts. Bill dull grey until 8 to 10 weeks starts to turn colors according to what s*x each individual is. Purplish-blue of speculum more confined to inner secondaries. Acquires adult plumage first year each individual molts at its on rate depending Stress: from migration, Nutrition, and Genetics. May see Mallard Drakes that don’t molt into breeding Plumage until late January.
• Note: (Anas platyrhynchos domesticus) there are 100s of different breeds of domestic Mallards that have been bred over the centuries for Meat making them larger than the wild species to the point they can’t fly. Show ducks, pets, and multiple other reasons like Color mutations. One of the most common is the White Peking duck. They get out or released into the wild and breed with the wild population creating some peculiar looking ducks. Confusing people of what they are.
• Greenland or Northern Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos conboschas) as regular Mallard but with paler plumage. larger in size: 24.5-28 inches and weight is 3.0-4.5 lbs so about 20% larger than the nominate race. Also has a smaller Bill.
Range
is widely distributed across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres; in North America from southern and central Alaska to Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, across Eurasia, from Iceland and southern Greenland and parts of Morocco (North Africa) in the west, Scandinavia to the north, and to Siberia, Japan, and South Korea, in the east, Australia and New Zealand in the Southern hemisphere.It is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters farther south. For example, in North America, it winters south to Mexico, but also regularly strays into Central America and the Caribbean between September and May.
Greenland or Northern Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos conboschas)- Resdient west and south-west coasts of Greenland: some movement of the more northerly birds in winter.
Migration
Partially migratory, northernmost breeding populations generally winter much further S, but sedentary in temperate regions (most of Europe, parts of N America). Many records outside range, but perhaps majority attributable to escapes. along numerous corridors, but the greatest concentrations move from Manitoba and Saskatchewan through the Midwestern United States to the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. Mallards winter throughout the United States, with the highest densities typically recorded during winter surveys along the Mississippi Flyway from Cape Girardeau, Mo., to the Gulf of Mexico. 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. Mallards are found in a variety of habitats, including dry agricultural fields, shallow marshes and oak-dominated forested wetlands. Mallards are vagrant to Central America and the Caribbean.
Habitat
Mallards are one of the first ducks to arrive back on the breeding grounds in spring. They are adaptable and may nest near a lake, pond, river, or even woodland pool. Their preferred habitats, however, are the natural grasslands that surround little reed-ringed sloughs, or marshy areas, and potholes on the prairies.
Even in the heart of many major cities, half-tame Mallards waddle ashore from park lakes to take food from the hands of visitors.
The Mallard is a typical member of the surface-feeding group of ducks, known as the dabblers. It is often seen in the tipped-up position with its tail held vertical. Although the bird can dive in an emergency, it rarely does so.
Reproduction
By late March or early April, the first of the Mallards are back on the prairies, the place in Canada where they are the most numerous. At this time, lakes and ponds are usually frozen, and only meltwater fills the hollows of pasture lands and fields. The early arrivals are usually mated pairs. The female, accompanied by the male, searches for a territory. Most often, she will choose a territory close to where she was born. Some females return year after year to the same site.
The nesting site may be close to a pond but is frequently at some distance and may even be far from water. Normally on the ground, the nest is little more than a depression lined with bits of rushes, grass, weeds, or other material close at hand. It is usually in good cover such as thick grass, or under a buckbrush, brier rose, or other prairie shrub. The eggs, which with different birds may vary in colour from dull green to almost white, are laid daily. Up to 15 may be deposited, but the usual number is between 8 and 12.
Incubation, or warming of the eggs until they hatch, does not start until the last egg has been laid. This ensures that all the ducklings will hatch at approximately the same time. During the laying period, and particularly in the early stages of incubation, the female sheds down, or fine feathers, from her belly to line the nest. This grey down, with white centres, is pulled over the eggs when the duck leaves the nest to feed. It not only supplies warmth but hides the eggs from crows, magpies, and other predators, which are quick to find uncovered eggs.
The female does all the incubating, which takes around 28 days. The ducklings emerge as handsome little balls of down. Their clove-brown backs are relieved by four yellow patches. Faces and underparts are also yellow, with the exception of a dark ear spot and a brown line through the eye.
Mallards may re-nest up to three or four times if their nests are destroyed. Each successive nest will have fewer eggs. However, Mallards do not raise more than a single brood of ducklings each year.
As soon as the ducklings are dry, the female leads them to the nearest water. This may be a long and hazardous journey. Although the female may have nested near a pothole or slough full of spring meltwater, much of this water may have evaporated, leaving nothing but drying mud. On overland trips, straggling ducklings may get lost in the grass or be picked up by predators.
The Mallard is an excellent mother, however. She will stop at frequent intervals to collect and brood, or warm, her young. If surprised by an intruder, she is likely to go flapping and squawking across the ground, as if injured. This feigned injury may not fool a human, but undoubtedly lures predators away.
Once on the water, the female leads her brood to feeding areas. The young find their own food, which at first probably consists of small crustaceans, or hard-shelled creatures, such as water fleas, insects, and tiny plants like duckweed. The young gradually lose their down and grow their feathers. In about 10 weeks they have assumed a plumage that is much like that of the female. By that time, the female has abandoned them. After the breeding season Mallards moult, or shed old feathers, into what is known as an eclipse plumage. The males are the first to undergo this moult.
The males remain on their territories for about the first 10 days of incubation. After that, they desert their mates. They move to larger marshes, where they lose their brilliant breeding plumage and become more similar to the hen, or female. All their flight feathers are shed at once, and for about a month the birds are flightless. They hide in the reeds until their new feathers are grown. When the females have left their broods, they too gather in the reeds to moult. They also become flightless, but the new plumage they assume is little different from the one they have shed. In the late fall the young gain the plumage of their respective s*xes. The males, however, may not attain their full brilliance until their second year.
In late summer the birds gather in mixed flocks of young and old. Throughout much of the day they sit idly far from shore. As the grain ripens, the ducks make their flights to the feeding fields. These flights are usually made in early morning and late evening, but in dull, stormy weather may occur throughout the day. They provide the hunter with the best duck shooting.
Feeding habits
Mallards dabble to feed on seeds, rootlets, and tubers of aquatic plants, seeds of swamp and river bottoms. Mallards are one of the few ducks that habitually feed on grain. Barley and wheat are preferred. Most grain is now harvested by combine, and ducks cannot do much damage, except when the grain is left in swaths because of poor weather.
Conservation
Least Concern.
This duck is breeding throughout northern Eurasia and North America. For practical reasons its populations of the European Union can be subdivided in three distinct sub-populations, separated by their wintering quarters. The first, totalling about 5000000 individuals and apparently stable, is wintering in the Atlantic regions from Denmark to the British Isles and Aquitaine. The second population is estimated at 1000000 individuals, and has nearly doubled during the last 20 years. It winters around the western Mediterranean, from Italy to Iberia. The third population is still estimated at 2250000 individuals, but has probably declined by 60-75% during the last 20 years. It winters in the Black Sea regions and the eastern Mediterranean, e. g. in Greece
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAshzIexpJw
https://www.facebook.com/species241/posts/347273398997288Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)
Description:
Size: 23-24.5 inches
Weight: 2.4- 2.7 lbs
Wingspan: 32–39 in
There are 2 subspecies:
• Photo 1 Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos platyrhynchos)
• Photo 2 Greenland or Northern Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos conboschas)
Male : in breeding dress is unmistakable. The glossy head and upper neck are brilliant green, separated from the rich chestnut of the breast by a white collar. The rest of the underparts and the sides are light grey. back and wings of the bird are greyish brown, with a purplish-blue speculum, or wing patch, on the wing. The whitish tail has black above and below it. Two central black feathers that curve back above the tail give the breeding male its characteristic curly-tailed appearance. The male has a yellow bill and orange legs and feet.
Female: is a much less colorful bird. Its back is mottled brown, its breast heavily streaked with buff and darker brown. It is best recognized by the white-bordered speculum on the wing, which is similar to that of the male. The female has an orange to light yellowish green bill, sometimes blotched with black, and its legs and feet are orange.
Juvenile: Darker overall and more heavily streaked on underparts. Bill dull grey until 8 to 10 weeks starts to turn colors according to what s*x each individual is. Purplish-blue of speculum more confined to inner secondaries. Acquires adult plumage first year each individual molts at its on rate depending Stress: from migration, Nutrition, and Genetics. May see Mallard Drakes that don’t molt into breeding Plumage until late January.
• Note: (Anas platyrhynchos domesticus) there are 100s of different breeds of domestic Mallards that have been bred over the centuries for Meat making them larger than the wild species to the point they can’t fly. Show ducks, pets, and multiple other reasons like Color mutations. One of the most common is the White Peking duck. They get out or released into the wild and breed with the wild population creating some peculiar looking ducks. Confusing people of what they are.
• Greenland or Northern Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos conboschas) as regular Mallard but with paler plumage. larger in size: 24.5-28 inches and weight is 3.0-4.5 lbs so about 20% larger than the nominate race. Also has a smaller Bill.
Range
is widely distributed across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres; in North America from southern and central Alaska to Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, across Eurasia, from Iceland and southern Greenland and parts of Morocco (North Africa) in the west, Scandinavia to the north, and to Siberia, Japan, and South Korea, in the east, Australia and New Zealand in the Southern hemisphere.It is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters farther south. For example, in North America, it winters south to Mexico, but also regularly strays into Central America and the Caribbean between September and May.
Greenland or Northern Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos conboschas)- Resdient west and south-west coasts of Greenland: some movement of the more northerly birds in winter.
Migration
Partially migratory, northernmost breeding populations generally winter much further S, but sedentary in temperate regions (most of Europe, parts of N America). Many records outside range, but perhaps majority attributable to escapes. along numerous corridors, but the greatest concentrations move from Manitoba and Saskatchewan through the Midwestern United States to the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. Mallards winter throughout the United States, with the highest densities typically recorded during winter surveys along the Mississippi Flyway from Cape Girardeau, Mo., to the Gulf of Mexico. 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. Mallards are found in a variety of habitats, including dry agricultural fields, shallow marshes and oak-dominated forested wetlands. Mallards are vagrant to Central America and the Caribbean.
Habitat
Mallards are one of the first ducks to arrive back on the breeding grounds in spring. They are adaptable and may nest near a lake, pond, river, or even woodland pool. Their preferred habitats, however, are the natural grasslands that surround little reed-ringed sloughs, or marshy areas, and potholes on the prairies.
Even in the heart of many major cities, half-tame Mallards waddle ashore from park lakes to take food from the hands of visitors.
The Mallard is a typical member of the surface-feeding group of ducks, known as the dabblers. It is often seen in the tipped-up position with its tail held vertical. Although the bird can dive in an emergency, it rarely does so.
Reproduction
By late March or early April, the first of the Mallards are back on the prairies, the place in Canada where they are the most numerous. At this time, lakes and ponds are usually frozen, and only meltwater fills the hollows of pasture lands and fields. The early arrivals are usually mated pairs. The female, accompanied by the male, searches for a territory. Most often, she will choose a territory close to where she was born. Some females return year after year to the same site.
The nesting site may be close to a pond but is frequently at some distance and may even be far from water. Normally on the ground, the nest is little more than a depression lined with bits of rushes, grass, weeds, or other material close at hand. It is usually in good cover such as thick grass, or under a buckbrush, brier rose, or other prairie shrub. The eggs, which with different birds may vary in colour from dull green to almost white, are laid daily. Up to 15 may be deposited, but the usual number is between 8 and 12.
Incubation, or warming of the eggs until they hatch, does not start until the last egg has been laid. This ensures that all the ducklings will hatch at approximately the same time. During the laying period, and particularly in the early stages of incubation, the female sheds down, or fine feathers, from her belly to line the nest. This grey down, with white centres, is pulled over the eggs when the duck leaves the nest to feed. It not only supplies warmth but hides the eggs from crows, magpies, and other predators, which are quick to find uncovered eggs.
The female does all the incubating, which takes around 28 days. The ducklings emerge as handsome little balls of down. Their clove-brown backs are relieved by four yellow patches. Faces and underparts are also yellow, with the exception of a dark ear spot and a brown line through the eye.
Mallards may re-nest up to three or four times if their nests are destroyed. Each successive nest will have fewer eggs. However, Mallards do not raise more than a single brood of ducklings each year.
As soon as the ducklings are dry, the female leads them to the nearest water. This may be a long and hazardous journey. Although the female may have nested near a pothole or slough full of spring meltwater, much of this water may have evaporated, leaving nothing but drying mud. On overland trips, straggling ducklings may get lost in the grass or be picked up by predators.
The Mallard is an excellent mother, however. She will stop at frequent intervals to collect and brood, or warm, her young. If surprised by an intruder, she is likely to go flapping and squawking across the ground, as if injured. This feigned injury may not fool a human, but undoubtedly lures predators away.
Once on the water, the female leads her brood to feeding areas. The young find their own food, which at first probably consists of small crustaceans, or hard-shelled creatures, such as water fleas, insects, and tiny plants like duckweed. The young gradually lose their down and grow their feathers. In about 10 weeks they have assumed a plumage that is much like that of the female. By that time, the female has abandoned them. After the breeding season Mallards moult, or shed old feathers, into what is known as an eclipse plumage. The males are the first to undergo this moult.
The males remain on their territories for about the first 10 days of incubation. After that, they desert their mates. They move to larger marshes, where they lose their brilliant breeding plumage and become more similar to the hen, or female. All their flight feathers are shed at once, and for about a month the birds are flightless. They hide in the reeds until their new feathers are grown. When the females have left their broods, they too gather in the reeds to moult. They also become flightless, but the new plumage they assume is little different from the one they have shed. In the late fall the young gain the plumage of their respective s*xes. The males, however, may not attain their full brilliance until their second year.
In late summer the birds gather in mixed flocks of young and old. Throughout much of the day they sit idly far from shore. As the grain ripens, the ducks make their flights to the feeding fields. These flights are usually made in early morning and late evening, but in dull, stormy weather may occur throughout the day. They provide the hunter with the best duck shooting.
Feeding habits
Mallards dabble to feed on seeds, rootlets, and tubers of aquatic plants, seeds of swamp and river bottoms. Mallards are one of the few ducks that habitually feed on grain. Barley and wheat are preferred. Most grain is now harvested by combine, and ducks cannot do much damage, except when the grain is left in swaths because of poor weather.
Conservation
Least Concern.
This duck is breeding throughout northern Eurasia and North America. For practical reasons its populations of the European Union can be subdivided in three distinct sub-populations, separated by their wintering quarters. The first, totalling about 5000000 individuals and apparently stable, is wintering in the Atlantic regions from Denmark to the British Isles and Aquitaine. The second population is estimated at 1000000 individuals, and has nearly doubled during the last 20 years. It winters around the western Mediterranean, from Italy to Iberia. The third population is still estimated at 2250000 individuals, but has probably declined by 60-75% during the last 20 years. It winters in the Black Sea regions and the eastern Mediterranean, e. g. in Greece
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAshzIexpJw
https://www.facebook.com/species241/posts/347273398997288