A hard nail at the tip of the bill helps with foraging, and a comb-like structure on the sides of the bill strains small insects and crustaceans from water. This gives the eggs the best possible cushioning and insulation.ĭucks are omnivorous, opportunistic eaters and will eat grass, aquatic plants, insects, seeds, fruit, fish, crustaceans and other types of food.Ī duck's bill is specialized to help it forage in mud and to strain food from the water. When constructing her nest, a hen will line it with soft down feathers she plucks from her own breast. Most duck species are monogamous for breeding season but they do not mate for life. During that month, they are completely flightless and more vulnerable to predators. Male ducks have an eclipse plumage similar to females that they wear after the breeding season for about a month as their new feathers grow. A duck's feathers are so waterproof that even when the duck dives underwater, its downy under layer of feathers will stay completely dry.ĭucks are precocial, which means that ducklings are covered with down and able to walk and leave the nest just a few hours after hatching.Ī hen will lead her ducklings up to a half mile or more over land after hatching in order to find a suitable water source for swimming and feeding. When taking off, the wings of a mallard produce a characteristic faint whistling noise.Wood Ducks at the Northern Pike Rearing Pond at CWCĪll ducks have highly waterproof feathers as a result of an intricate feather structure and a waxy coating that is spread on each feather while preening. In addition, females hiss if the nest or offspring are threatened or interfered with. When incubating a nest, or when offspring are present, females vocalize differently, making a call that sounds like a truncated version of the usual ‘quack’. Males make a sound phonetically similar to that of the female, a typical ‘quack’, but it is deeper and quieter compared to that of the female. Females have the deep ‘quack’ stereotypically associated with ducks. Females may also carry out 'inciting displays', which encourage other ducks in the flock to begin fighting.
#Flocks of mallards skin#
Males typically 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. However, during the breeding season, both male and female mallards can become aggressive, driving off competitors to themselves or their mate by charging at them. They are highly gregarious outside of the breeding season and form large flocks, which are known as "sordes". They usually feed by dabbling for plant food or grazing. Mallards are diurnal birds that spend most of their time feeding. They are attracted to bodies of water with aquatic vegetation. Water depths of less than 0.9 m (3.0 ft) are preferred, with birds avoiding areas more than a few meters deep. They can be found in both fresh- and salt-water wetlands, including parks, small ponds, rivers, lakes, and estuaries, as well as shallow inlets and open seas within sight of the coastline. They live in a wide range of habitats and climates, from the Arctic tundra to subtropical regions.
Mallards are strongly migratory in the northern parts of their breeding range and winter farther south. Also in the east, it ranges to south-eastern and south-western Australia and New Zealand in the Southern hemisphere. Mallards are found across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres in North America, their range extends from southern and central Alaska to Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, across the Palearctic, from Iceland and southern Greenland and parts of Morocco (North Africa) in the west, Scandinavia and Britain to the north, and to Siberia, Japan, and South Korea. Australasian, Nearctic, Neotropical, Palearctic, Antarctic, Indomalayan, Oceanian, Afrotropical
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