Mallard
Mallards inhabit a wide range of wetland habitats across North America, from city parks to boreal forests, prairies and other upland habitats. Mallards are the most abundant duck species in North America.

Mallards are the most widespread of the dabbling ducks – ducks that feed by tipping forward, tails up, submerging their heads beneath the water's surface. They breed from Alaska to Baja California, and from central Quebec to the Carolinas. Mallards also breed throughout northern Europe and Asia, and have been introduced in Australia and New Zealand. North American Mallards winter throughout most of the contiguous United States, wherever there is open water. Many Mallards migrate, though some remain in the same area year-round. Migratory mallards generally use the same corridors to travel between their breeding and wintering grounds year after year, in both spring and fall.
Mallard Range Map

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that in 2000, there were about 10.8 million breeding Mallards in the United States alone. Mallards are also the ducks most hunted by humans in North America, representing more than one-third of all ducks shot. More than 5.5 million Mallards were taken by hunters in 1999. Male Mallards are more common than females; in North America, there about four males for every three females.

Mallards have highly varied diets. During the breeding season, they eat primarily insects, larvae, aquatic invertebrates, and worms. In fall and winter, they eat mostly seeds, grains, and aquatic vegetation. Of course, Mallards in parks and urban areas often consume bread and other handouts or discarded food from humans; some urban Mallards rely exclusively on human-provided food in winter.

Mallard pairs form on the wintering grounds; courtship starts in September, and pairs are usually established by November. Males try to attract the attention of females with a variety of displays, bobbing or shaking their heads. As many as five males may perform these displays at once, in competition for the attention of a single female. Females select their mates on the basis of various criteria, including the vigor of their displays, the quality of their plumage, and the color of their bills. Pair bonds do not endure for more than one breeding season.

With the thaws of late winter, Mallard pairs begin to arrive in flocks on their breeding grounds. Pairs disperse from the arriving flocks within a few days. Then females start to search for nest sites. Nests are located on the ground near water, concealed in vegetation. In some forests, Mallard nests may also be found in the tops of dead trees, in hollows at the bottoms of trunks, or in abandoned crow nests. The female settles into the nest site, forming a depression by pushing with her feet and rotating her body. While sitting, she reaches and pulls nearby vegetation to line the nest. After laying eggs, she also pulls down from her body to line the nest and cover the eggs. Clutch sizes vary widely, from 1 to 13 eggs.

Males desert their mates during incubation, often heading north from the nest site. At this time, the males molt (that is, new feathers replace old ones), and the birds temporarily lose their ability to fly. Flocks of molting males sometimes include tens of thousands of birds. Females, meanwhile, incubate the eggs nearly 23 hours per day, turning the eggs and changing her position every half-hour or so. Females do not enter their annual flightless molt until after young reach independence, or after broods are lost.

In general, all Mallard eggs in a single brood hatch within 10 hours of each other. Mallard ducklings remain at the nest only until the morning after hatching; then they swim with their mother and siblings away from the nest. Mallard ducklings can feed themselves, but rely on their mothers to locate sites of abundant food. Mallard hens call frequently to keep young from straying from the family group.

Some Mallard hens raise their broods together. When Mallard ducklings become separated from their mothers, or when mothers are killed, the ducklings sometimes join other family groups. Young Mallards attain the ability to fly at about two months of age, at which point they can live completely independently.

Mallards are medium-sized ducks, the largest of the dabbling ducks in North America. Length 20-25 inches. Breeding males are highly distinctive and familiar to most everyone, with a shiny, dark-green head (which sometimes shows a purple or bluish sheen), yellow bill, white neck-ring, brown breast, gray back, pale gray flanks, white outer tail feathers, and strongly curved black central tail feathers. Legs are bright red-orange. In late summer, adult male Mallards show duller plumage, including brown flanks and pale grayish faces.

Adult female Mallards are mostly brown, with fine dark markings. Faces are pale brown, with a thin dark line through the eye. Bill is mostly orange, often with a small irregular patch of black. For adults of both sexes, speculum (patch on trailing portion of each inner wing) is blue-violet, with fringes of white.

Ducklings show irregular dark gray and white patches on their upperparts, and are mostly whitish below. Faces are yellow, with dark crowns, napes, and eye lines. Juveniles in late summer attain the appearance and size of adult females.

The Mexican subspecies of Mallard, commonly known as Mexican Duck, has been considered to be a separate species until recently. Mexican Ducks of both sexes and all ages resemble female Mallards as described above, with more uniformly dark brown body plumage.

Mallards are unusually vocal ducks, with a wide array of calls. Females issue the familiar, loud “quaaaack-quaa-quaa-quaa-quaa” as a contact call with mates or other Mallards. The most common call of male Mallards is a rasping “raab.”


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