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Anas platyrhynchos

(Green-Headed Duck)

Overview

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Mallards, the ancestor of almost all breeds of domestic ducks, are the most recognized and widely distributed waterfowl in the world. Occupying fresh and brackish waters, especially in wetlands, they also utilize agricultural fields near water as habitat . They are dabbling ducks which means they do not dive underwater for food but feed at or just below the surface, upending in shallow water to get at morsels in the mud bottom .

Common Names

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Click on the language to view common names.

Common Names in Afrikaans:

Groenkopeend

Common Names in Dutch:

Wilde Eend

Common Names in English:

Common Mallard, Common Wild Duck, Curly-Tail, Domestic Duck, Duck, English Duck, French Duck, Gray Duck, Gray Mallard, Green-Headed Duck, Greenhead, Mallard, Mallard Duck, Mallard Ducks, Mexican Duck, New Mexican Duck, Stock Duck

Common Names in French:

Canard Colvert

Common Names in German:

Stockente

Common Names in Hebrew:

ברכייה

Common Names in Italian:

Germano Reale

Common Names in Japanese:

マガモ

Common Names in Russian:

Кряква, Kryakva

Common Names in Spanish:

Anade Real, Azulón, Pato De Collar

Description

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Physical Description

Adult Female: Face : Facial Skin : orange Bill: orange and black mottled Legs : Leg Color: orange Wings: Speculum: metallic blue-violet with white borders Tail: white.Adult Male: Head : shiny green Face: Facial Skin: orange Bill: yellow Neck: Collar : narrow white ring Body: Back: gray brown Breast: purple chestnut Color: pale gray Sides: white Underparts: white Legs: Leg Color: orange Wings: Speculum: metallic blue-violet with white borders Tail: white Shape : 2 curled up black tail feathers..

Color:

The plumage of the male and female Mallard is quite different. The male has a green head , brown chest, small white neck band , brownish gray body, white outer tail feathers, and a violet-blue speculum (the secondary feathers located on the back inner portion of the wing). The female is a variable brown, and also has a violet-blue speculum.

Adult male alternate: Alternate plumage worn from fall through early summer · Gray back · Yellow bill · Green head · White ring around neck · Chestnut breast · Gray flanks and upperwing coverts · Black undertail coverts contrast with white tail

Adult male basic: Similar to adult female, but usually with chestnut breast and an unmarked yellowish bill

Adult female: Orange bill with black central patch · Pale brown face · Dark cap and eye line · Mottled brown and tan plumage

Size/Age/Growth

About 23 inches long, with a wingspan of 30 to 40 inches. Adults weigh about 38.4 ounces .

Habitat

These birds require shallow water habitats for feeding such as streams , ponds , lakes , marshes, swamps , wetlands, and flooded fields . The water can be fresh or brackish . Although not a preferred habitat, these birds are seen in saltwater marinas but not in the open ocean. They also need dry land for nesting and resting. In Southern California they can occasionally be found nesting in urban gardens under shrubbery.

Vegetation: freshwater lakes and ponds, freshwater marshes • Maximum Elevation: 1,000 meters • Foraging Strata: Water • Center of Abundance: Lower subtropical: lowlands, lower than 500 m.; subtropics. • Sensitivity to Disturbancet: Low

Ecology: List of Habitats : 5.4 Wetlands (inland) - Bogs , Marshes, Swamps , Fens , Peatlands 5.5 Wetlands (inland) - Permanent Freshwater Lakes (over 8ha)

Biology

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Diet

The diet of mallards consists mainly of vegetation (floating, submerged, and emergent), but also includes aquatic invertebrates such as worms, mollusks, and arthropods . They eat seeds of wild rice, pond- weeds , water elm, and oaks, and visit agricultural stubble fields to dine on leftover grain. They also eat people food fed to them by humans in parks, at lakes , etc. This is usually bread which is not good for them.

Mallards have several eating strategies. They feed at the waters surface by straining water through their bill, upend in shallow water to reach deeper food items either below the surface such as submerged plants or in the mud such as snails. Walking on land , they pick up food with the nail of their bill or strip seed heads and foliage with the bills edge .

Reproduction

Formation of pair bonds begins in October with courtship displays continuing until mating takes place, usually in March. In display males give a short downward whistle. The males (drakes) leave soon after mating occurs. Females (hens ) produce a clutch of 9-13 light green unspotted eggs in an open but concealed nest on dry ground near a body of water . After 26-28 days the eggs hatch and precocious thickly down covered ducklings emerge that are able to walk, swim , and feed themselves within just a few hours after birth. Their thick down is an excellent insulator and also traps air that increases their buoyancy in the water. As soon as the chicks dry out after hatching , the hen abandons the nest and leads them to water. The diet of young chicks is primarily insects. Ducklings become independent (fledge ) at 42-60 days. If the nest is destroyed by predators or high water , Mallards may renest.

While still incubating her eggs, the female starts bonding with the future chicks. She initiates a low call and the egg-shell bound young call back. Once hatched, the downy chicks demonstrate their bonding by staying near each other and swimming in a tight group.

Migration

Migratory

Behavior

Both the male and female usually molt in late summer or early fall , which renders them flightless for around 33 days.

In mid to late summer when the breeding season is over and food is abundant, males and non nesting females begun to molt into basic plumage. The process includes loss of some but not all feathers and simultaneous loss of all flight feathers leaving them unable to fly for a period and vulnerable to predators .

Males lose their distinctive breeding coloration acquiring a drab female-like plumage but with a dull olive bill. They molt again to their alternate plumage in late summer to early fall. Females begin their change into basic plumage prior to nesting. Their color change is not as dramatic as that of males. They replace head feathers and some or most of their body feathers, acquiring some long fluffy down , part of which may be used to line their nest . After nesting they replace their flight feathers and any old remaining body feathers. It is not long after this molting is complete that they start a second molt to acquire their alternate plumage.

In areas that have cold winters Mallards migrate to warmer climates after the breeding season is over, often in flocks. They are usually year-round residents in areas where the climate stays relatively warm. During the migration they usually fly at night after orienting themselves to a set course in the late evening.

The familiar quack, referred to as the decrescendo call because it descends the scale, is given by females and may be heard for long distances . Females also use a hail call to summon their ducklings to them. Males make a short rasping quack or a soft whistle.

Mallards were once thought to migrate directly from breeding ground to winter layover areas on one of four flyway paths (Pacific, Mississippi, Central, and Atlantic). In general these flyways follow the coasts, mountain ranges , and rivers and valleys. Tracking of banded birds has now revealed that the flight is often not direct, but includes movement between flyways. Birds flying the Mississippi Flyway from breeding areas in the prairie provinces of Canada may winter in Texas which is on the Central Flyway or at Californias Salton Sea on the Pacific Flyway. Some from Alaska move southeasterly across the Pacific Flyway to Texas. And still others follow direct routes.

Taxonomy

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Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name . Latest taxonomic scrutiny: 17-Oct-2001.

Similar Species

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Northern Shoveler, Common Merganser, Red-Breasted Merganser

Members of the genus Anas

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 184 species and subspecies in this genus. Here are just 100 of them:

A. (Mareca) penelope · A. acuta (Northern Pintail) · A. acuta acuta (Northern Pintail) · A. acuta drygalskii (Northern Pintail) · A. acuta eatoni (Northern Pintail) · A. acuta tzitzihoa · A. albogularis · A. americana (American Wigeon / Baldpate) · A. anas · A. andium · A. angustirostris · A. arcuata · A. aucklandica (Campbell Island Flightless Teal) · A. aucklandica aucklandica (New Zealand Brown Teal) · A. aucklandica chlorotis · A. aucklandica nesiotis (Campbell Island Flightless Teal) · A. aurita · A. bahamensis (White-Cheeked Pintail) · A. bahamensis bahamensis (White-Cheeked Pintail) · A. bahamensis galapagensis (White-Cheeked Pintail Duck) · A. bahamensis rubirostris · A. bahamensis rubrirostris · A. bahamensis ssp · A. bernieri (Madagascar Teal) · A. blanchardi · A. boscas · A. boschas · A. boschas domesticus · A. brasiliensis · A. capensis (African Cape Teal) · A. carolinensis (Green-Winged Teal) · A. castanea (Chestnut-Breasted Teal) · A. chiloensis · A. chlorotis (Brown Teal) · A. circia · A. clypeata (Red-Breasted Shoveler) · A. clypeata x · A. crecca (Green Winged Teal) · A. crecca carolinensis (Green-Winged Teal) · A. crecca crecca (Green-Winged Teal) · A. crecca nimia (Aleutian Green-Winged Teal) · A. cristata · A. cyanoptera (South American Teal) · A. cyanoptera borreroi · A. cyanoptera cyanoptera (South American Teal) · A. cyanoptera orinoma · A. cyanoptera orinomus · A. cyanoptera septentrionalium (Cinnamon Teal) · A. cyanoptera ssp · A. cyanoptera tropica · A. cyanoptera tropicus · A. diazi (New Mexican Duck) · A. diazi novimexicana (New Mexican Duck) · A. discors (Blue Winged Teal) · A. discors discors (Blue-Winged Teal) · A. discors orphna (Blue-Winged Teal) · A. domesticus · A. drygalskii · A. eatoni (Eaton's Pintail) · A. eatoni drygalskii · A. eatoni eatoni · A. erythrophthalma · A. erythrorhyncha (Red-Billed Duck) · A. falcata (Bronze-Capped Teal) · A. flavirostris (Speckled/chilean Teal) · A. flavirostris altipetens · A. flavirostris andinum · A. flavirostris andium · A. flavirostris flavirostris (Speckled/chilean Teal) · A. flavirostris oxyptera · A. flavirostris ssp · A. floridana · A. formosa (Spectacled Teal) · A. formosa georgi (Spectacled Teal) · A. formosus · A. fretensis · A. fulcigula (Mottled Duck) · A. fuligula · A. fulva · A. fulvigula (Summer Black Duck) · A. fulvigula fulvigula (Summer Black Duck) · A. fulvigula maculosa (Mottled Duck) · A. gambensis · A. georgica (Yellow-Billed Pintail) · A. georgica georgica (Yellow-Billed Pintail) · A. georgica niceforoi · A. georgica spinicauda · A. gibberifrons (Sunda Teal) · A. gibberifrons albogularis · A. gibberifrons gibberifrons (Sunda Teal) · A. gibberifrons gracilis · A. gracilis (Grey Teal) · A. gracilis gracilis · A. hottentota (Hottentot Teal) · A. hybrid · A. hybrids · A. javanica · A. laysanensis (Laysan Duck) · A. leucophrys (Ringed Teal) · A. leucostigma

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 28, 2007:

Identifiers

Last Revised: 2009-12-02