I walk around a residential lake. The wrought iron-fenced back and side yards of tidy brick homes face the shoreline. In one yard I count 22 mallard ducks. This is their territory, and they come & go as they please. The lake itself hosts many other mallards in various forms of activity — swimming, eating, playing, sleeping and flying in for a landing. There are tiny baby ducks following their mother in a neat straight line. Occasionally, there is a squabble between two ducks with high-pitched squawks and dramatic splashing.
Cool Facts
According to Cornell University, here are some cool facts about mallards:
· The mallard is the ancestor of nearly all domestic duck breeds — everything except the Muscovy duck. Domestic ducks can be common in city ponds and can be confusing to identify — they may lack the white neck ring, show white on the chest, be all dark or show oddly shaped crests on the head.
· The standard duck’s quack is the sound of a female mallard. Males don’t quack; they make a quieter, rasping sound.
· Mallards, like other ducks, shed all their flight feathers at the end of the breeding season and are flightless for 3–4 weeks. They are secretive during this vulnerable time, and their body feathers molt into a concealing “eclipse” plumage that can make them hard to identify.
· Mallard pairs form long before the spring breeding season. Pairing takes place in the fall, but courtship can be seen all winter. Only the female incubates the eggs and takes care of the ducklings. Males leave after the eggs are hatched.
· They are strong fliers; migrating flocks of mallards have been estimated traveling at 55 miles per hour.
· The oldest known Mallard was a male, and at least 27 years, 7 months old when he was shot in Arkansas in 2008. He had been banded in Louisiana in 1981.
· If a predator is lurking nearby, a mother mallard will pretend to be injured to distract it from her brood.
According to Wikipedia, the mallard is a dabbling duck feeding mainly at the surface rather than by diving. It breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurosiberia and North Africa and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Falkland Islands and South Africa. The male birds or drakes have a glossy green head and are grey on their wings and belly, while the females or hens have mainly brown-speckled plumage. Both sexes have an area of white-bordered black or iridescent blue feathers called a speculum on their wings. It is a very adaptable species, being able to live and even thrive in urban areas which may have supported more localized, sensitive species of waterfowl before development.
Growing up
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. As it nears a month in age, the duckling's plumage starts becoming drab, looking more like the female, though more streaked, and its legs lose their dark grey coloring.
Two months after hatching, the fledgling period has ended, and the duckling is now a juvenile. Between three and four months of age, the juvenile can finally begin flying, as its wings are fully developed for flight, which can be confirmed by the sight of purple speculum feathers. Its bill soon loses its dark grey coloring, and its sex can finally be distinguished visually by three factors: 1) the bill is yellow in males, but black and orange in females; 2) the breast feathers are reddish-brown in males, but brown in females; and 3) in males, the center tail feather is curled, but in females, it is straight.
During the final period of maturity leading up to adulthood at six to 10 months of age, the plumage of female juveniles remains the same while the plumage of male juveniles gradually changes to its characteristic colors. This change in plumage also applies to adult mallard males when they transition in and out of their non-breeding eclipse plumage at the beginning and the end of the summer molting period. The adulthood age for mallards is 14 months, and the average life expectancy is three years, but they can live to 20.
Copulation and rape
Mallards usually form pairs in October and November in the Northern Hemisphere until the female lays eggs at the start of the nesting season, which is around the beginning of spring. At this time, she is left by the male who joins up with other males to await the molting period, which begins in June in the Northern Hemisphere. During the brief time before this, however, the males are still sexually potent and some of them either remain on standby to sire replacement clutches of eggs for female mallards that have lost or abandoned their previous clutch or forcibly mate with females that appear to be isolated or unattached, regardless of their species and whether or not they have a brood of ducklings.
During the breeding season, both male and female mallards can become aggressive, driving off competitors to themselves or their mate by charging at them. Males tend to fight more than females, and attack each other by repeatedly pecking at their rival's chest, ripping out feathers and even skin on rare occasions. Female mallards are also known to carry out “inciting displays,” which encourages other ducks in the flock to begin fighting. It is possible that this behavior allows the female to evaluate the strength of potential partners.
The drakes that end up being left out after the others have paired off with mating partners sometimes target an isolated female duck, even one of a different species, and proceed to chase and peck at her until she weakens, at which point the males take turns copulating with the female. T. Lebret (1961) calls this behavior "attempted rape flight," and Stanley Cramp and K.E.L. Simmons (1977) speak of "rape-intent flights." Male mallards also occasionally chase other male ducks of a different species — and even each other — in the same way. In one documented case of "homosexual necrophilia," a male mallard copulated with another male he was chasing after the chased male died upon flying into a glass window. This paper was awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in 2003.
Eggs
Egg clutches or groups number 8–13 creamy white to greenish-buff eggs free of speckles. They measure about 2.3 inches in length and 1.3 inches in width. The eggs are laid on alternate days, and incubation begins when the clutch is almost complete. Incubation takes 27–28 days and fledging takes 50–60 days. The ducklings are relatively mature and mobile from birth and fully capable of swimming as soon as they hatch. However, filial imprinting compels them to instinctively stay near the mother, not only for warmth and protection but also to learn about and remember their habitat, as well as how and where to forage for food. When ducklings mature into flight-capable juveniles, they learn about and remember their traditional migratory routes unless they are born and raised in captivity. In New Zealand, where mallards are naturalized, the nesting season has been found to be longer, eggs and clutches are larger and nest survival is generally greater compared with mallards in their native range.
Mallards are opportunistically targeted by brood parasites, occasionally having eggs laid in their nests by redheads, ruddy ducks, lesser scaup, gadwalls, northern shovelers, northern pintails, cinnamon teal, common goldeneyes and other mallards. These eggs are generally accepted when they resemble the eggs of the host mallard, but the hen may attempt to eject them or even abandon the nest if parasitism occurs during egg laying.
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, mustelids (weasels, badgers, otters, ferrets, martens, minks, wolverines), corvids (crows, ravens, rooks magpies, etc.), snakes, raccoons, opossums, skunks, turtles, large fish, felids (wild and domestic cats) and canids (domestic dogs, wolves, foxes, etc.). The most prolific natural predators of adult mallards are red foxes — which most often pick off brooding females — and the faster or larger birds of prey, e.g. peregrine falcons and eagles. In North America, adult mallards face no fewer than 15 species of birds of prey, from northern harriers and short-eared owls — both smaller than a mallard — to huge bald and golden eagles.
Mallards are also preyed upon by the grey heron, European herring gull, wels catfish and northern pike. Crows are also known to kill ducklings and adults on occasion. Also, mallards may be attacked by 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.
The predation-avoidance behavior of sleeping with one eye open, allowing one brain hemisphere to remain aware while the other half sleeps, was first demonstrated in mallards, although it is believed to be widespread among birds in general.
Diet
According to the National Audubon Society, the majority of its diet is plant material, including seeds, stems and roots of a vast variety of different plants — especially sedges, grasses, pondweeds, smartweeds, etc.; also acorns and other tree seeds, various kinds of waste grain. Also eats insects, slugs, crustaceans (crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, etc.), mollusks, tadpoles, frogs, earthworms and small fish. Young ducklings may eat mostly aquatic insects.
Hunting
Mallards are one of the most common varieties of ducks hunted as a sport due to the large population size. The ideal location for hunting mallards is considered to be where the water level is somewhat shallow where the birds can be found foraging for food. In certain countries, the mallard may be legally shot but is protected under national acts and policies. For example, in the United Kingdom, the mallard is protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which restricts certain hunting methods or taking or killing mallards.
As food
Since ancient times, the mallard has been eaten as food. The wild mallard was eaten in Neolithic Greece. Usually, only the breast and thigh meat is eaten. It does not need to be hung before preparation and is often braised or roasted, sometimes flavored with bitter orange or with port.
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