by Christopher Chatterton

Created on: April 23, 2008

Wild bird species: The Mallard

Chances are you will hear the worlds most widespread and abundant wild duck species before you ever see it. The familiar repetitive quak-quak-quak' of a female Mallard can be heard on remote country lakes in Wyoming, to the city parks of London and the meandering River Indus in Northern India.

The scientific name of the Mallard is Anas platyrhynchos (phonetic pronunciation: An-as pla-tee-rin-cos) and it belongs to the family Anatidae, which contains 149 species of waterfowl, including ducks, geese and swans.

In common with all waterfowl, the mallard is an excellent swimmer and strong flier; being known to have reached speeds in excess of 40mph (Owen & Black, 1990) and this has allowed it to colonise various habitats and thrive along side mankind.

The Mallards close association with man has led to it being described as the Ancestor of all Domestic Ducks' (Holden & Cleeves, 2002) as it hybridises extremely well with closely related species; over centuries this has led to the creation of the commercially successful Aylesbury Duck, which is used for meat (Burton, 1981).

Mallard Vital Statistics

Dimensions

The Mallard is a large and heavy looking bird with a long and broad bill and measures on average between 20 26 inches in length (50-65cm) or about two foot long.

Adults can weigh between 2-3lbs or 1-1.4Kg (about the size of a small chicken).

Males known as Drakes are characterised by a bright bottle green head, bright yellow bill, white neck-ring, purple/brown breast and a predominantly grey body with curly black tail feathers (Holden & Cleeves, 2002).

In contrast, Females, known simply as Ducks, have a dark crown and a dark eye stripe, with a paler mottled brown breast and mottled brown feathers covering most of the body and have orange legs. Juvenile Mallards closely resemble females after their down gives way to feathers, but are distinguishable by more finely streaked side feathers (Burton, 1981).

Both the male and female have bright blue speculums or secondary flight feathers. However, when moulting this turns to more of a violet colour, which helps to discriminate between birds as at this stage (July to September), the male closely resembles the female, apart from its striking yellow bill.

Voice

The voice or call of a Male is a low and quiet rasping crrrib', while the female possesses the familiar repetitive quack', which I think sounds a little like laughter, as though the ducks are sharing a private joke!
Burton (2007) has described how

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