Characteristics of the mallard duck

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When it comes to waterfowl, the first bird that comes to mind is the mallard duck from the duck family. Due to the fact that this duck is almost omnivorous and does not require special living and living conditions, its geographical distribution is striking.

Mallard duck

The only place where it is impossible to meet the mallard is Antarctica, although there is still a breed of the American mallard duck. A distinctive feature of the mallard is that you can easily find out what a drake looks like, but like a female. Naturally, due to the unpretentiousness of the duck, it is often bred in households, as well as in large-scale farms. Let's learn about this bird in more detail.

Description of the bird

Let's move on to a short description of the mallard. Mallard refers to true ducks that habitually live on rivers. The peculiarity of feeding the mallard is that it does not look for food at depth, but is content only with what it can find at a distance of its neck lowered into the water. This type of duck is quite large, its weight reaches 2-2.5 kg. The bird swims well, rarely dives, moves on land with difficulty, without developing high speed.

As for flight, here the mallard, like other birds, is able to fly quickly, while emitting a characteristic sound of wingspan and a sound similar to a whistle, the mallard's voice (cry) is often used by hunters as a decoy. This duck's voice cannot be confused with anyone else's. In general, hunting for a mallard is a popular entertainment for men. Most often, for this purpose, they use a decoy duck, which is able to attract its relatives and lure them into a trap.

What do mallard ducks look like? The color of the feathers differs in females and males, as usual in a drake, the color is brighter and more expressive. The male has blue-green spots on the head and neck, at the bottom of the neck there is a pronounced white collar, the back is most often black or bluish-black, the same coloring is characteristic of the abdomen. At the same time, the sides and breast tend to brown more. The feathers of the mallard on the wings have several shades, are decorated with a small oval speck, which differs sharply from the main color. The female does not look so attractive, her main color is gray with red, while the belly is slightly lighter, therefore the duck is often called the gray mallard. It is also worth saying that the female mallard is much smaller than the drake and lives less (their life expectancy is reduced by 1-2 years).

The gray duck mallard is currently an industrial bird that is used as prey for hunting. At the same time, all the well-known domestic ducks are the descendants of the wild, it is from her that their origin comes. The mallard is now more and more often used for decorative purposes: to populate artificial ponds and other reservoirs, as this is the natural habitat of the mallard, but hunting is not losing its popularity.

Bird breeding

Gray mallards hibernate in warm areas.When migrating for wintering, birds keep in flocks, the number of the detachment does not exceed 30-50 pieces, this distinguishes them from other species of migratory birds. However, they arrive at the place of flight, having already created pairs. Despite this, it happens that some drakes remain "bachelors", not finding their beloved. It is between such individuals that mass fights most often occur, so they fight for the attention of females, leadership in the flock and the right to reproduce.

Those who created a pair begin their mating games almost immediately upon arrival at the nesting site. There are a lot of entertaining videos and photos of the mallard, which were filmed by duck watchers, posted on the Internet on the LJ resource. It is worth saying that among the representatives of this breed, the games are very diverse and spectacular. The male tries in every possible way to attract the attention of the female, while dancing on the water, spectacularly lowering his beak into the water, then abruptly tipping his head back, practically making a somersault over himself, the neck is stretched as much as possible, and the feathers are straightened so that the dimensions of the feathered are doubled. The mallard reproduces naturally, like any other bird, be it wild or domestic.

How is nesting

The couple chooses the place where the nest will be located, while the mallard drake is responsible for physical labor, that is, it brings material for construction. The nest is usually set up near a water source, it can be either a river or puddles formed after the spring melting of snow. By the time the chicks are born, often the water is gone and they hatch in the grass or under trees. It also happens that nesting occurs high above the ground:

• on the trees;
• in the hollow of old trees.

Chicks hatch usually in spring (although mallards can also produce offspring in autumn), while individuals mate only in water. If nesting takes place in the natural environment, then eggs hatch in the nests. If the bird is kept at home in an artificial reservoir, boxes with warm hay bedding are suitable for this, improving the maintenance of the mallard. This is a kind of home incubation. The mallard duck lays one egg per day and sits on them only when their number is more than 5.

In order to keep the eggs warm, as well as to protect them from destruction, female mallards use fluff, which falls out of the breast at a certain stage in the laying of duck eggs. It is noteworthy that wild duck eggs are food for many animals living near the water; no more than 60% of the total number survives from the clutch. This down is also called nesting. Chicks grow quickly. Let's give a weight gain scheme in the table, from which it will be seen how much chicks are gaining at a given age:

Malling mallard

After the common mallard starts hatching eggs, the drakes, as "true men", do not interfere in this process and fly away. At this time, they molt, their appearance changes. They choose places near water with dense vegetation, because the goal is to remain inaccessible to the enemy during the period when they are temporarily unable to fly. This period in the life of birds takes about a month, at the end of its plumage is restored, and the ducks are again ready for flights in winter, but in the spring they will definitely return back.

As for the females that remained in the nests, the molting process occurs at the same time, but they do not fly away anywhere. Moulting time in females does not last so long, taking only 2-3 weeks.

How the mallard cares for feathers

As mentioned earlier, the common mallard is a waterfowl, so the structure of its feathers is special in order to protect the skin from getting wet.Every morning for a duck starts the same way - with a swim in a pond, like a morning shower for every person. The exercise begins with dipping the head, then the whole body is washed.

Why don't the feathers get wet? The fact is that the mallard duck processes each of them with fat, which is constantly produced by the fatty gland hidden at the base of the tail. Due to the fact that the duck representative lubricates the feathers with fat, they do not get wet, and also always remain elastic.

In general, being in the water and swimming for birds is the most important part of their life. If the mallard has got into the water, then it will stay here for a long time, carefully washing every feather. Water procedures necessarily end with drying the feathers. It always looks spectacular, because the bird spreads its wings and tail, showing all the beauty of its color. Usually, such procedures take a lot of energy, so they end in rest: the duck lies down on a warm, dry place, puts its head under one wing.

If you are planning to breed mallard ducks at home, you need to make sure that she can perform the same manipulations with feathers and bathing, this is vital for her comfort.

What mallard eats

If the bird lives in natural conditions, the food of the mallard includes vegetation growing near the reservoir, as well as small insects, tadpoles and other small animals. If the bird is kept at home, then it is worth feeding the birds with ground grain, both dry and steamed. You can also add duckweed to the diet - this is a plant that any waterfowl eats with pleasure. Be sure to make sure that the ducks have fresh water, otherwise it is fraught with the development of many diseases of the digestive tract.

In order to better process plant food, the structure of the beak of ducks is special. Inside, along both edges, there are microscopic brushes, they are also called filter brushes. With their help, the duck gathers duckweed with water with its beak, then filters the water, leaving only food in its beak.

How ducklings develop

After the chicks hatch from the egg, they try not to move away from the brood not a single step, because at this time they are easy prey for the enemy. The duck is a good mother, as it closely monitors each chick. After birth, for a long time she does not allow babies to get to the water, because at the beginning of life they do not have the ability to swim. The first skill they need to learn is to break holes with their paws so that in the future they can easily get food on their own, for example, worms. When the chicks get stronger, the female will lead them to the water, give the first swimming lessons.

Chicks at the beginning of life usually feed on boiled pearl barley. For greater calorie content, chicken eggs can be mixed into porridge, this will enable the bird to gain weight faster. Experienced poultry farmers advise adding a bedding to the diet of the wild mallard from the second month of life, gradually replacing all meals with it. It is important to add vitamins to the diet from the first days of life. The presence of fortified supplements will be an excellent prevention of many diseases, such as rickets. On how well the bird eats, its health will depend.

Already at 2-3 weeks of age, many ducklings are ready for independent feeding, they switch to plant food - duckweed. In the period from 4-6 weeks, the chicks begin to molt - the down is replaced by feathers. The process starts with the wings, then moves on to the back and chest.

Recommendations for home content

If you plan to keep birds at home, you need to try to make them feel like they are in a natural environment. Let's highlight the main points that you need to adhere to:

• In terms of nutrition, it is important to enrich the diet of chicks with vitamins from the earliest possible age. It is also necessary to introduce duckweed at a certain age in the bird menu, so the ducklings will gain weight faster.
• During nesting, you need to help the female to create the most protected nest, only in this way the common mallard can calmly engage in incubation of eggs.
• It is important not to interfere with the process of incubating eggs and in no case touch the eggs that have not yet hatched with your hands. The hen can reject the babies, which will entail the death of the entire brood.
• To preserve the maximum number of bird offspring, you need to monitor the safety of the chicks, thus the survival rate will significantly increase.