The mallard is 19.7-25.6 inches (50-65 cm) in length and has a wingspan of 32.3-37.4 inches (82-95 cm).
It has a blue patch on the top side of its wings with a white line around it. The female mallard is mottled brown and tan with a white tail and an orange bill.
The male mallard has a green head and neck with a white ring at the bottom. It has a brown chest, whitish-gray undersides, brown wings, and a yellow bill.
Most of the mallard’s diet is plants. It eats the seeds of grasses and sedges* and the leaves, stems, and seeds of aquatic plants. It occasionally eats insects, crustaceans, and mollusks – especially when it is young.
It prefers to forage (look for food) in water that is less than 16 inches (41 cm) deep, so it can duck its head down and reach plants at the bottom.
The mallard sometimes forages on farmland for grains like rice, corn, oats, wheat, and barley.
*Sedges are plants that look like grass and usually grow in clumps in wet areas. Unlike most plants, which have round stems, sedges have stems shaped like triangles. They also have silica in their leaves. Silica is the same material used to make glass, so sedge leaves can be very sharp! A handy way to remember the difference between sedges and grasses is: “Sedges have edges.”
Mallard courtship begins in the fall, and by winter, pairs have formed. If a pair is part of a migrating group, the pair migrates to the female’s territory.
The female mallard lays 8-10 eggs in a nest on the ground. Nests are depressions in the ground and are usually no more than 100 yards (91 m)from water. The nest is lined with down and is usually hidden in tall grass.
The female incubates the eggs. The male leaves once incubation has begun. The eggs take about a month to hatch.
Within a day of hatching, the mother leads the chicks to water for their first swim. The chicks fledge (develop flight feathers) when they are about eight weeks old.
The mllard has an average lifespan of 5-10 years in the wild.
After the mating season ends, some mallards in colder regions migrate in flocks to their winter homes. Mallards in warmer areas, where food is abundant, may stay in the same place all year.
The mallard is the ancestor of nearly all domestic duck breeds. It occasionally mates with domestic ducks, producing offspring with a mix of colors and patterns.
The mallard sometimes mates with other duck species like the American black duck and the northern pintail.
The mallard sometimes mates with other duck species, like the American black duck and the northern pintail. Scientists are worried that the black duck could disappear over time because it mixes so much with mallards—a process called hybridization.*
*Hybridization happens when two different species of animals mate, and the offspring are a combination of the two separate species.
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The mallard breeds across New Hampshire, and in some parts of the state, it is a year-long resident.
The mallard breeds in most of Canada and the United States.
It winters throughout the United States and south to Central America and the Caribbean.
The mallard is also found in Europe and Asia.
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