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One of the most rare ducks in the world! Photographed at Zealandia, Karori Sanctuary, Wellington, New Zealand.
Family: Anatidae (Dabbling ducks)
Status: endangered endemic
Brown teal is one of three closely related species of teal in New Zealand. The other two being the flightless subantarctic Auckland teal and Campbell Island teal.
Once common throughout New Zealand, habitat destruction, especially swamp drainage and predation, have resulted in brown teal becoming one of our most nationally endangered species of waterfowl. Approximately 1300 birds were surviving nationwide in 1999making it one of the rarest ducks in the world!
Most birds are to be found on Great Barrier Island. There are a few brown teal on Kapiti, Mana, and Tiritiri Matangi Islands, the eastern side of Northland and a new population has recently been established in the Coromandel area. Brown teal are regularly present at the Waikanae Estuary, probably part of the Kapiti Island population.
In the South Island, a few birds survive in Fiordland.
Recognition: About half the size of the common mallard duck, brown teal stand 48cm tall and weigh just over half a kilo as an adult. The male is slightly larger than the female. Brown teal have a warm brown plumage, with dark-brown mottling on the breast. Breeding males have a glossy green head, a narrow white collar, broad green and narrow white bands on the wings and a white flank patch. A distinctive feature of all brown teal is their blue-black bill and the narrow white ring around the eye. Their eyes are brown. Males give a soft whistle, and the female a low quack and growl.
Brown teal are often referred to as bush ducks, since they prefer stream and bushland habitats. They are reluctant flyers and are shallow divers, dabbling just below the surface for food. Their favourite food is invertebrates and they mainly feed in the evening or at night.
Breeding: Most brown teal breed from June to October but are able to breed at almost any time of the year.
They begin breeding at about 2 years of age and can lay clutches of up to 8 eggs. • Brown teal build a bowl-shaped nest near water, under the cover of dense tussocks or ferns, constructed with grasses lined with down. The female incubates the eggs about 30 days while the drake guards the nest - they are strongly territorial during breeding. Chicks fledge at an age of about 2 months. Brown teal pairs generally have stable relationships. The oldest known teal in the wild lived over 6 years.
Brown teal at Karori Sanctuary. 18 brown teal were initially released in 2000 and 2001. Breeding started from late 2002 and good productivity has resulted in increased competition for preferred wetland habitats and, because these habitats are limited in the Sanctuary, losses have occurred as a result.
Supplementary feeding of maize has been largely discontinued since early 2006 to reduce productivity and competition for territories.
Genetic analysis of the population in 2006-2007 should clarify whether or not there has been a loss of genetic diversity and whether additional birds need to be released into the population in future.
Active monitoring over the breeding season was ceased in 200x due to the fact that the population is self-sustaining.
Brown teal are readily seen on the lower and upper lakes. Being forest dwellers as well as water dwellers, some are being regularly seen at the kaka feeders below the upper dam at dusk and also at the southern end of the Faultline Track. The brown teal’s omnivorous diet, restricted annual range and mainly terrestrial lifestyle give it a unique ecological niche among waterfowl, somewhat akin to a wetland rodent, and it serves as a classic example of the influence of selective forces that operated on birds in pre-human New Zealand.
Teals dabbling at Shollenberger Park
Related blog post on ducks: The Case Against Hunting on National Wildlife Refuges
These birds are the most abundant and widely distributed duck species in North America.
Appearance
Large dabbling duck weighing up to 1.3 kg
In breeding plumage, drake (also known as a ‘greenhead’) is easily identified by bright green head, olive yellow bill, brown chest and blue wing patches.
Hen is a mottled brown colour overall, with blue wing patches, orange and black bill and orange feet.
Both have distinctive white underwings with blue speculum markings in their rear edges.
Breeding
One of the first ducks to return to breeding grounds in spring; arrive in breeding pairs as soon as open water is available.
Hen lays one egg a day for a full nest of 8-12 eggs often near the site where she herself hatched.
Hens will re-nest up to four times if a nest is destroyed or abandoned
Hen incubates eggs for an average of 28 days and leads brood to wetland within 24 hours of hatching—stays with brood until they are able to fly at about 8 weeks of age.
Habitat: Lakes, ponds, rivers, potholes, woodland pools and surrounding uplands
Range: Breeds throughout majority of Canada and U.S. (Canadian breeding range expanding in east and north due to natural expansion and introduction by humans). Winters in U.S., northern Mexico and southern Canada (as long as open water and food are available). Most widely distributed dabbler in the world also breeds in Europe and Asia. Most abundant North American duck.
Diet: Wetland vegetation, seeds, mollusks, crustaceans, insects and larvae.
Interesting Facts
With the exception of the muscovy duck, mallards are the predecessors of all domestic ducks; they have been domesticated in Southeast Asia for over 2000 years and in Europe since at least the 12th century
Mallards interbreed with black ducks, northern pintails, gadwall, cinnamon teal and green-winged teal; scientists believe that interbreeding between black ducks and mallards may be a cause for concern for the black duck population
Mallards are highly adaptive to varied environments and human activity. Nesting takes place in urban settings including backyards. Their wide range and abundance is attributed to this adaptability.
Sussex Bus dabbled with double deck operation in 1989, acquiring a former Northern General Daimler Fleetline and Bristol VR DKH928L which was new to East Yorkshire. The VR is in Chichester on 31 March 1989 on West Sussex CC contracted service 59. The Fleetline 2501LJ (ex GCN813G) was involved in a low bridge accident at Amberley in 1989 and was converted to open top. Both double deckers were sold in 1990 and no more were purchased. The Fleetline passed on to Kinch and was reregistered SRY425G.
Northern Pintails forage in shallow water by dabbling at the George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary Delta BC Canada
I also dabble in clay tiles. i handcut most and paint them.. well isnt that fitting, painting on clay. both my loves come into one here. i love it all, the whole process. i have made oddles of em, this is just a pinch of my collection. made just for fun! and arent they.
I dabble in Perler Beads, there are so many cool 8-bit or 16-bit things you can make with them. My roommates are obsessed with them. This was my first piece and it took three days and over 1000 perler beads. I'm pretty much in love with it.
The mallard or wild duck (Anas platyrhynchos) is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa. It has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Falkland Islands, and South Africa. This duck belongs to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae. Males have green heads, while the females (hens or ducks) have mainly brown-speckled plumage. Both sexes have an area of white-bordered black or iridescent purple or blue feathers called a speculum on their wings; males especially tend to have blue speculum feathers. The mallard is 50–65 cm (20–26 in) long, of which the body makes up around two-thirds the length. The wingspan is 81–98 cm (32–39 in) and the bill is 4.4 to 6.1 cm (1.7 to 2.4 in) long. It is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks, weighing 0.7–1.6 kg (1.5–3.5 lb). Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes.
The female lays 8 to 13 creamy white to greenish-buff spotless eggs, on alternate days. Incubation takes 27 to 28 days and fledging takes 50 to 60 days. The ducklings are precocial and fully capable of swimming as soon as they hatch.
The mallard is considered to be a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Unlike many waterfowl, mallards are considered an invasive species in some regions. It is a very adaptable species, being able to live and even thrive in urban areas which may have supported more localised, sensitive species of waterfowl before development. The non-migratory mallard interbreeds with indigenous wild ducks of closely related species through genetic pollution by producing fertile offspring. Complete hybridisation of various species of wild duck gene pools could result in the extinction of many indigenous waterfowl. This species is the main ancestor of most breeds of domestic duck, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool has been genetically polluted by the domestic and feral mallard populations.
Taxonomy and evolutionary history
The mallard was one of the many bird species originally described in the 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae by Carl Linnaeus. He gave it two binomial names: Anas platyrhynchos and Anas boschas.The latter was generally preferred until 1906 when Einar Lönnberg established that A. platyrhynchos had priority, as it appeared on an earlier page in the text. The scientific name comes from Latin Anas, "duck" and Ancient Greek πλατυρυγχος, platyrhynchus, "broad-billed" (from πλατύς, platys, "broad" and ρυγχός, rhunkhos, "bill"). The genome of Anas platyrhynchos was sequenced in 2013.
The name mallard originally referred to any wild drake, and it is sometimes still used this way. It was derived from the Old French malart or mallart for "wild drake" although its true derivation is unclear. It may be related to, or at least influenced by, an Old High German masculine proper name Madelhart, clues lying in the alternative English forms "maudelard" and "mawdelard". Masle (male) has also been proposed as an influence.
Mallards frequently interbreed with their closest relatives in the genus Anas, such as the American black duck, and also with species more distantly related, such as the northern pintail, leading to various hybrids that may be fully fertile. The mallard has hybridized with more than 40 species in the wild, and an additional 20 species in captivity, though fertile hybrids typically have two Anas parents. Mallards and their domestic conspecifics are fully interfertile; many wild mallard populations in North America contain significant amounts of domestic mallard DNA.
Genetic analysis has shown that certain mallards appear to be closer to their Indo-Pacific relatives, while others are related to their American relatives. Mitochondrial DNA data for the D-loop sequence suggest that mallards may have evolved in the general area of Siberia. Mallard bones rather abruptly appear in food remains of ancient humans and other deposits of fossil bones in Europe, without a good candidate for a local predecessor species. The large Ice Age palaeosubspecies that made up at least the European and West Asian populations during the Pleistocene has been named Anas platyrhynchos palaeoboschas.
Mallards are differentiated in their mitochondrial DNA between North American and Eurasian populations,[19] but the nuclear genome displays a notable lack of genetic structure. Haplotypes typical of American mallard relatives and eastern spot-billed ducks can be found in mallards around the Bering Sea. The Aleutian Islands hold a population of mallards that appear to be evolving towards becoming a subspecies, as gene flow with other populations is very limited.
Also, the paucity of morphological differences between the Old World mallards and the New World mallard demonstrates the extent to which the genome is shared among them such that birds like the Chinese spot-billed duck are highly similar to the Old World mallard, and birds such as the Hawaiian duck are highly similar to the New World mallard.
The size of the mallard varies clinally; for example, birds from Greenland, though larger, have smaller bills, paler plumage, and stockier bodies than birds further south and are sometimes classified as a separate subspecies, the Greenland mallard (A. p. conboschas).
Description
The mallard is a medium-sized waterfowl species that is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks. It is 50–65 cm (20–26 in) long – of which the body makes up around two-thirds – has a wingspan of 81–98 cm (32–39 in),[24]: 505 and weighs 0.7–1.6 kg (1.5–3.5 lb).[25] Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 25.7 to 30.6 cm (10.1 to 12.0 in), the bill is 4.4 to 6.1 cm (1.7 to 2.4 in), and the tarsus is 4.1 to 4.8 cm (1.6 to 1.9 in). The breeding male mallard is unmistakable, with a glossy bottle-green head and a white collar that demarcates the head from the purple-tinged brown breast, grey-brown wings, and a pale grey belly. The rear of the male is black, with white-bordered dark tail feathers. The bill of the male is a yellowish-orange tipped with black, with that of the female generally darker and ranging from black to mottled orange and brown. The female mallard is predominantly mottled, with each individual feather showing sharp contrast from buff to very dark brown, a coloration shared by most female dabbling ducks, and has buff cheeks, eyebrow, throat, and neck, with a darker crown and eye-stripe. Mallards, like other sexually-dimorphic birds, can sometimes go though spontaneous sex reversal, often caused by damaged or nonfunctioning sex organs, such as the ovaries in mallard hens. This phenomenon can cause female mallards to exhibit male plumage, and vice versa (phenotypic feminisation or masculinisation).
Both male and female mallards have distinct iridescent purple-blue speculum feathers edged with white, which are prominent in flight or at rest but temporarily shed during the annual summer moult. Upon hatching, the plumage of the duckling is yellow on the underside and face (with streaks by the eyes) and black on the back (with some yellow spots) all the way to the top and back of the head. Its legs and bill are also black. As it nears a month in age, the duckling's plumage starts becoming drab, looking more like the female, though more streaked, and its legs lose their dark grey colouring. Two months after hatching, the fledgling period has ended, and the duckling is now a juvenile. The duckling is able to fly 50–60 days after hatching. Its bill soon loses its dark grey colouring, and its sex can finally be distinguished visually by three factors: 1) the bill is yellow in males, but black and orange in females; 2) the breast feathers are reddish-brown in males, but brown in females; and 3) in males, the centre tail feather (drake feather) is curled, but in females, the centre tail feather is straight. During the final period of maturity leading up to adulthood (6–10 months of age), the plumage of female juveniles remains the same while the plumage of male juveniles gradually changes to its characteristic colours. This change in plumage also applies to adult mallard males when they transition in and out of their non-breeding eclipse plumage at the beginning and the end of the summer moulting period. The adulthood age for mallards is fourteen months, and the average life expectancy is three years, but they can live to twenty.
Several species of duck have brown-plumaged females that can be confused with the female mallard. The female gadwall (Mareca strepera) has an orange-lined bill, white belly, black and white speculum that is seen as a white square on the wings in flight, and is a smaller bird. More similar to the female mallard in North America are the American black duck (A. rubripes), which is notably darker-hued in both sexes than the mallard, and the mottled duck (A. fulvigula), which is somewhat darker than the female mallard, and with slightly different bare-part colouration and no white edge on the speculum.
Mallards are among the most common bird species to exhibit aberrant colouration, typically due to genetic mutations.[39] The female pictured here is leucistic; leucism in birds often results in 'cream-colored', 'apricot' or muted feathers on certain parts of the body.
In captivity, domestic ducks come in wild-type plumages, white, and other colours. Most of these colour variants are also known in domestic mallards not bred as livestock, but kept as pets, aviary birds, etc., where they are rare but increasing in availability.
A noisy species, the female has the deep quack stereotypically associated with ducks. Male mallards 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. Research conducted by Middlesex University on two English mallard populations found that the vocalisations of the mallard varies depending on their environment and have something akin to a regional accent, with urban mallards in London being much louder and more vociferous compared to rural mallards in Cornwall, serving as an adaptation to persistent levels of anthropogenic noise.
When incubating a nest, or when offspring are present, females vocalise differently, making a call that sounds like a truncated version of the usual quack. This maternal vocalisation is highly attractive to their young. The repetition and frequency modulation of these quacks form the auditory basis for species identification in offspring, a process known as acoustic conspecific identification. In addition, females hiss if the nest or offspring are threatened or interfered with. When taking off, the wings of a mallard produce a characteristic faint whistling noise.
The mallard is a rare example of both Allen's Rule and Bergmann's Rule in birds. Bergmann's Rule, which states that polar forms tend to be larger than related ones from warmer climates, has numerous examples in birds, as in case of the Greenland mallard which is larger than the mallards further south. Allen's Rule says that appendages like ears tend to be smaller in polar forms to minimise heat loss, and larger in tropical and desert equivalents to facilitate heat diffusion, and that the polar taxa are stockier overall. Examples of this rule in birds are rare as they lack external ears, but the bill of ducks is supplied with a few blood vessels to prevent heat loss, and, as in the Greenland mallard, the bill is smaller than that of birds farther south, illustrating the rule.
Due to the variability of the mallard's genetic code, which gives it its vast interbreeding capability, mutations in the genes that decide plumage colour are very common and have resulted in a wide variety of hybrids, such as Brewer's duck (mallard × gadwall, Mareca strepera).
Distribution and habitat
The mallard is widely distributed across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres; in North America its 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. Also in the east, it ranges to south-eastern and south-western Australia and New Zealand in the Southern hemisphere. It is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters farther south. For example, in North America, it winters south to the southern United States and northern Mexico, but also regularly strays into Central America and the Caribbean between September and May. A drake later named "Trevor" attracted media attention in 2018 when it turned up on the island of Niue, an atypical location for mallards.
The mallard inhabits a wide range of habitats and climates, from the Arctic tundra to subtropical regions. It is found in both fresh- and salt-water wetlands, including parks, small ponds, rivers, lakes and estuaries, as well as shallow inlets and open sea within sight of the coastline. Water depths of less than 0.9 metres (3.0 ft) are preferred, with birds avoiding areas more than a few metres deep. They are attracted to bodies of water with aquatic vegetation.
Behaviour
The mallard is omnivorous and very flexible in its choice of food. Its diet may vary based on several factors, including the stage of the breeding cycle, short-term variations in available food, nutrient availability, and interspecific and intraspecific competition. The majority of the mallard's diet seems to be made up of gastropods, insects (including beetles, flies, lepidopterans, dragonflies, and caddisflies), crustaceans, other arthropods, worms, many varieties of seeds and plant matter, and roots and tubers. During the breeding season, male birds were recorded to have eaten 37.6% animal matter and 62.4% plant matter, most notably the grass Echinochloa crus-galli, and nonlaying females ate 37.0% animal matter and 63.0% plant matter, while laying females ate 71.9% animal matter and only 28.1% plant matter. Plants generally make up the larger part of a bird's diet, especially during autumn migration and in the winter.
The mallard usually feeds by dabbling for plant food or grazing; there are reports of it eating frogs. However, in 2017 a flock of mallards in Romania were observed hunting small migratory birds, including grey wagtails and black redstarts, the first documented occasion they had been seen attacking and consuming large vertebrates. It usually nests on a river bank, but not always near water. It is highly gregarious outside of the breeding season and forms large flocks, which are known as "sordes".
Breeding
Mallards usually form pairs (in October and November in the Northern Hemisphere) until the female lays eggs at the start of the nesting season, which is around the beginning of spring. At this time she is left by the male who joins up with other males to await the moulting period, which begins in June (in the Northern Hemisphere). During the brief time before this, however, the males are still sexually potent and some of them either remain on standby to sire replacement clutches (for female mallards that have lost or abandoned their previous clutch) or forcibly mate with females that appear to be isolated or unattached regardless of their species and whether or not they have a brood of ducklings.
Nesting sites are typically on the ground, hidden in vegetation where the female's speckled plumage serves as effective camouflage, but female mallards have also been known to nest in hollows in trees, boathouses, roof gardens and on balconies, sometimes resulting in hatched offspring having difficulty following their parent to water.
Egg clutches number 8–13 creamy white to greenish-buff eggs free of speckles. They measure about 58 mm (2.3 in) in length and 32 mm (1.3 in) in width.[90] The eggs are laid on alternate days, and incubation begins when the clutch is almost complete. Incubation takes 27–28 days and fledging takes 50–60 days. The ducklings are precocial and fully capable of swimming as soon as they hatch. However, filial imprinting compels them to instinctively stay near the mother, not only for warmth and protection but also to learn about and remember their habitat as well as how and where to forage for food. Though adoptions are known to occur, female mallards typically do not tolerate stray ducklings near their broods, and will violently attack and drive away any unfamiliar young, sometimes going as far as to kill them.
When ducklings mature into flight-capable juveniles, they learn about and remember their traditional migratory routes (unless they are born and raised in captivity). In New Zealand, where mallards are naturalised, the nesting season has been found to be longer, eggs and clutches are larger and nest survival is generally greater compared with mallards in their native range.
In cases where a nest or brood fails, some mallards may mate for a second time in an attempt to raise a second clutch, typically around early-to-mid summer. In addition, mallards may occasionally breed during the autumn in cases of unseasonably warm weather; one such instance of a 'late' clutch occurred in November 2011, in which a female successfully hatched and raised a clutch of eleven ducklings at the London Wetland Centre.
During the breeding season, both male and female mallards can become aggressive, driving off competitors to themselves or their mate by charging at them. Males tend to 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. Female mallards are also known to carry out 'inciting displays', which encourage other ducks in the flock to begin fighting. It is possible that this behaviour allows the female to evaluate the strength of potential partners.
The drakes that end up being left out after the others have paired off with mating partners sometimes target an isolated female duck, even one of a different species, and proceed to chase and peck at her until she weakens, at which point the males take turns copulating with the female. Lebret (1961) calls this behaviour "Attempted Rape Flight", and Stanley Cramp and K.E.L. Simmons (1977) speak of "rape-intent flights". Male mallards also occasionally chase other male ducks of a different species, and even each other, in the same way. In one documented case of "homosexual necrophilia", a male mallard copulated with another male he was chasing after the chased male died upon flying into a glass window. This paper was awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in 2003.
Mallards are opportunistically targeted by brood parasites, occasionally having eggs laid in their nests by redheads, ruddy ducks, lesser scaup, gadwalls, northern shovelers, northern pintails, cinnamon teal, common goldeneyes, and other mallards. These eggs are generally accepted when they resemble the eggs of the host mallard, but the hen may attempt to eject them or even abandon the nest if parasitism occurs during egg laying.
Predators and threats
In addition to human hunting, mallards of all ages (but especially young ones) and in all locations must contend with a wide diversity of predators including raptors and owls, mustelids, corvids, snakes, raccoons, opossums, skunks, turtles, large fish, felids, and canids, the last two including domestic cats and dogs. The most prolific natural predators of adult mallards are red foxes (Vulpes vulpes; which most often pick off brooding females) and the faster or larger birds of prey, (e.g. peregrine falcons, Aquila or Haliaeetus eagles). In North America, adult mallards face no fewer than 15 species of birds of prey, from northern harriers (Circus hudsonius) and short-eared owls (Asio flammeus) (both smaller than a mallard) to huge bald (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) and golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), and about a dozen species of mammalian predators, not counting several more avian and mammalian predators who threaten eggs and nestlings.
Mallards are also preyed upon by other waterside apex predators, such as grey herons (Ardea cinerea), great blue herons (Ardea herodias) and black-crowned night herons (Nycticorax nycticorax), the European herring gull (Larus argentatus), the wels catfish (Silurus glanis), and the northern pike (Esox lucius). Crows (Corvus spp.) are also known to kill ducklings and adults on occasion. Also, mallards may be attacked by larger anseriformes such as swans (Cygnus spp.) and geese during the breeding season, and are frequently driven off by these birds over territorial disputes. Mute swans (Cygnus olor) have been known to attack or even kill mallards if they feel that the ducks pose a threat to their offspring. Common loons (Gavia inmer) are similarly territorial and aggressive towards other birds in such disputes, and will frequently drive mallards away from their territory. However, in 2019, a pair of common loons in Wisconsin were observed raising a mallard duckling for several weeks, having seemingly adopted the bird after it had been abandoned by its parents.
The predation-avoidance behaviour of sleeping with one eye open, allowing one brain hemisphere to remain aware while the other half sleeps, was first demonstrated in mallards, although it is believed to be widespread among birds in general.
Status and conservation
Since 1998, the mallard has been rated as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species. This is because it has a large range–more than 20,000,000 km2 (7,700,000 mi2) and because its population is increasing, rather than declining by 30% over ten years or three generations and thus is not warranted a vulnerable rating. Also, the population size of the mallard is very large.
Unlike many waterfowl, mallards have benefited from human alterations to the world – so much so that they are now considered an invasive species in some regions. They are a common sight in urban parks, lakes, ponds, and other human-made water features in the regions they inhabit, and are often tolerated or encouraged in human habitat due to their placid nature towards humans and their beautiful and iridescent colours. While most are not domesticated, mallards are so successful at coexisting in human regions that the main conservation risk they pose comes from the loss of genetic diversity among a region's traditional ducks once humans and mallards colonise an area. Mallards are very adaptable, being able to live and even thrive in urban areas which may have supported more localised, sensitive species of waterfowl before development. The release of feral mallards in areas where they are not native sometimes creates problems through interbreeding with indigenous waterfowl. These non-migratory mallards interbreed with indigenous wild ducks from local populations of closely related species through genetic pollution by producing fertile offspring. Complete hybridisation of various species of wild duck gene pools could result in the extinction of many indigenous waterfowl. The mallard itself is the ancestor of most domestic ducks, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool gets genetically polluted in turn by the domestic and feral populations. Over time, a continuum of hybrids ranging between almost typical examples of either species develop; the speciation process is beginning to reverse itself. This has created conservation concerns for relatives of the mallard, such as the Hawaiian duck, the New Zealand grey duck (A. s. superciliosa) subspecies of the Pacific black duck, the American black duck, the mottled duck, Meller's duck, the yellow-billed duck, and the Mexican duck, in the latter case even leading to a dispute as to whether these birds should be considered a species (and thus entitled to more conservation research and funding) or included in the mallard species. Ecological changes and hunting have also led to a decline of local species; for example, the New Zealand grey duck population declined drastically due to overhunting in the mid-20th century. Hybrid offspring of Hawaiian ducks seem to be less well adapted to native habitat, and using them in re-introduction projects apparently reduces success. In summary, the problems of mallards "hybridising away" relatives is more a consequence of local ducks declining than of mallards spreading; allopatric speciation and isolating behaviour have produced today's diversity of mallard-like ducks despite the fact that, in most, if not all, of these populations, hybridisation must have occurred to some extent.
Invasiveness
Mallards are causing severe "genetic pollution" to South Africa's biodiversity by breeding with endemic ducks even though the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds – an agreement to protect the local waterfowl populations – applies to the mallard as well as other ducks.[131] The hybrids of mallards and the yellow-billed duck are fertile, capable of producing hybrid offspring. If this continues, only hybrids occur and in the long term result in the extinction of various indigenous waterfowl. The mallard can crossbreed with 63 other species, posing a severe threat to indigenous waterfowl's genetic integrity. Mallards and their hybrids compete with indigenous birds for resources, including nest sites, roosting sites, and food.
Availability of mallards, mallard ducklings, and fertilised mallard eggs for public sale and private ownership, either as poultry or as pets, is currently legal in the United States, except for the state of Florida, which has currently banned domestic ownership of mallards. This is to prevent hybridisation with the native mottled duck.
The mallard is considered an invasive species in Australia and New Zealand, where it competes with the Pacific black duck (known as the grey duck locally in New Zealand) which was over-hunted in the past. There, and elsewhere, mallards are spreading with increasing urbanisation and hybridising with local relatives.
The eastern or Chinese spot-billed duck is currently introgressing into the mallard populations of the Primorsky Krai, possibly due to habitat changes from global warming. The Mariana mallard was a resident allopatric population – in most respects a good species – apparently initially derived from mallard-Pacific black duck hybrids; it became extinct in the late 20th century.
The Laysan duck is an insular relative of the mallard, with a very small and fluctuating population. Mallards sometimes arrive on its island home during migration, and can be expected to occasionally have remained and hybridised with Laysan ducks as long as these species have existed. However, these hybrids are less well adapted to the peculiar ecological conditions of Laysan Island than the local ducks, and thus have lower fitness. Laysan ducks were found throughout the Hawaiian archipelago before 400 AD, after which they suffered a rapid decline during the Polynesian colonisation.Now, their range includes only Laysan Island. It is one of the successfully translocated birds, after having become nearly extinct in the early 20th century.
Relationship with humans
Mallards have often been ubiquitous in their regions among the ponds, rivers, and streams of human parks, farms, and other human-made waterways – even to the point of visiting water features in human courtyards.
George Hetzel, mallard still life painting, 1883–1884
Mallards have had a long relationship with humans. Almost all domestic duck breeds derive from the mallard, with the exception of a few Muscovy breeds, and are listed under the trinomial name A. p. domesticus. Mallards are generally monogamous while domestic ducks are mostly polygamous. Domestic ducks have no territorial behaviour and are less aggressive than mallards. Domestic ducks are mostly kept for meat; their eggs are also eaten, and have a strong flavour. They were first domesticated in Southeast Asia at least 4,000 years ago, during the Neolithic Age, and were also farmed by the Romans in Europe, and the Malays in Asia. As the domestic duck and the mallard are the same species as each other, it is common for mallards to mate with domestic ducks and produce hybrid offspring that are fully fertile. Because of this, mallards have been found to be contaminated with the genes of the domestic duck.
While the keeping of domestic breeds is more popular, pure-bred mallards are sometimes kept for eggs and meat, although they may require wing clipping to restrict flying.
Hunting
Mallards are one of the most common varieties of ducks hunted as a sport due to the large population size. The ideal location for hunting mallards is considered to be where the water level is somewhat shallow where the birds can be found foraging for food. Hunting mallards might cause the population to decline in some places, at some times, and with some populations. In certain countries, the mallard may be legally shot but is protected under national acts and policies. For example, in the United Kingdom, the mallard is protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which restricts certain hunting methods or taking or killing mallards.
As food
Since ancient times, the mallard has been eaten as food. The wild mallard was eaten in Neolithic Greece. Usually, only the breast and thigh meat is eaten. It does not need to be hung before preparation, and is often braised or roasted, sometimes flavoured with bitter orange or with port.
American Wigeon: Medium dabbling duck, brown body with white crown, large green ear patch extending to back of head, buff washed breast and sides, and white belly. White shoulder patches visible in flight. Black-tipped pale blue bill. Swift direct flight, strong wing beats. Flies in tight flocks.
American Wigeon: Opportunistic and aggressive feeder, often foraging in open water by stealing materials brought to the surface by diving ducks and coots. Feeds primarily on leafy aquatic plants, grass, and agricultural crops; also takes insects and other aquatic invertebrates.
The American Wigeon was formerly known as "Baldpate" because the white stripe on their crown resembles a bald man's head.
Their short bill enables them to exert more force at the bill tip than other dabbling ducks, thus permitting efficient dislodging and plucking of vegetation.
Their diet has a higher proportion of plant matter than the diet of any other dabbling duck.
A group of ducks has many collective nouns, including a "brace", "flush", "paddling", "raft", and "team" of ducks.
Dabbling again, in a little portrait photography. This was my 8th "paying" shoot. I'm not quite sure how I got here. Haha! My love of photography will always lay within nature & wildlife but I have a really hard time saying no. Lol Portrait photgraphy is so...tricky & I am hardly skilled enogh for it yet, that's for sure. So far, I have done one wedding, a graduation, a family of 6, school photos, 2 romantic shoots, one boudoir & now a newborn. All have been great learning experiences but this one, the trickiest by far. As the newborn was only 3 weeks old & was only content for about the 1st 10 minutes of the 1&1/2 hr shoot. Good thing I just happen to be an extremely patient women. Lol Gave it my best shot. Uploaded 3 shots from my shoot. All comments, critique, advice, etc. are welcome, as I am forever learning.... =)
Early Spring as small shallow wetland open large numbers of dabbling duck and geese species can be seen in the open shallow wetlands. Huron Wetland Management District in east Central South Dakota. Photo: Sandra Uecker\USFWS
Early Spring as small shallow wetland open large numbers of dabbling duck and geese species can be seen in the open shallow wetlands. Huron Wetland Management District in east Central South Dakota. Photo: Sandra Uecker\USFWS
I’ve been dabbling with other metals then silver lately, trying to force myself into thinking of new creative approaches and this is the first piece emerging.
From a copper sheet I sawed out two circles and hammered them heavily. I really like the hammered effect so I gave the discs quite a rough time before I was happy. The hammering makes the metal’s edges rise and I decided to keep them like that and I also made sure to hammer the edges so the circles weren’t perfectly round anymore, but slightly wavy. (Something my dear husband, the ever lasting perfectionist immediately pointed out. LOL) I paired the discs with a tassel of lovely polished drops of rich, dark red Garnet and a few equally rich, dark red faceted rondelles of Garnet. Lastly I wrapped them to sterling silver chain that ends in my handmade hook style clasp.
I oxidised the whole piece and gave it only a gentle polish.
When I first started dabbling in RenderMan a few years ago, I began by converting LEGO Digital Designer files, with the idea that I could tackle LDraw later. Now that LDD is discontinued, someone else has written l2rib that can do the job of converting LDraw to RenderMan, but I thought it would be fun to add the capability to my program since I'm already so far into this.
This modular street scene shows what I've accomplished so far: the LDraw geometry extracts correctly and I've got most of the material types rendering properly, including subsurface scattering for the opaque colours. There's even a glow-in-the-dark ghost in this scene. (I still need to do glitter and speckle materials, and do a pass for colour correctness.) I support scene files that let you automatically attach lights to, say, "all round 1x1 bricks in transparent yellow", which made lighting the night time scene easy.
I've yet to smooth out the curved surfaces in a way that I like. I tried subdivision surfaces and they look lovely for some bricks but not others. This render enables subdivision surfaces for the bricks that work properly, which are most of them. When I have time, I think I'll add smoothed normals for the bricks that don't work with subdivision.
I downloaded some lovely HDRI images from HDRIHaven.com to light the scenes and provide backdrops. They're an excellent and free resource and I highly recommend their Patreon.
Each of these images took 2-4h to render on my 16 core machine. I haven't made serious attempts to optimize yet because I'm mostly enjoying playing with the look. This is how I relax after work. :)
1. Finished, next to original template, 2. Decorating the Lemon Pie - After Sugar, 3. Final Entries in the Holiday Recycling Contest!, 4. Making Eggnog - Attempt 1 (uncooked), 5. Freezing chicken stock, 6. Ornament Tutorials, 7. Santa Balloon, 8. Making Oatmeal Cookies, 9. Stacked Christmas Tree Cookies How To, 10. scarf-boy, 11. How To Make a Blueberry Pie, 12. sweatersnake2
Created with fd's Flickr Toys.
Blogged: dabbled.org/2010/02/valentine-sweet-treats-flickr-roundup...
1. valentine westie cookie - red, 2. Engagement Cupcakes, 3. pink hot chocolate, 4. Valentine Fortune Cookies, 5. Hearts and Flowers for V-Day, 6. valentines day cupcakes, 7. Valentine Cake Balls, 8. Valentine Cake, 9. Valentine's Day Cake
Created with fd's Flickr Toys
Illustration.
Dabbler in the dark art of illustration, with some photography thrown in too. I live in glorious N.Wales. Work for National Trust.
davehiggins.wordpress.com @DaveHigs
I like to dabble in railroad archeology by looking for the remains of railroad infrastructure. A good place to do that is along the Portage Hike and Bike Trail, which between Kent and Brady Lake, Ohio, is built on a portion of the former Erie right of way.
There remains one track still in place that is used by the Akron Barberton Cluster Railway, but otherwise much of the infrastructure is gone. That includes the yard and its lead tracks. But if you look around, there are many relics of the Erie still sitting there.
The block signals were removed many years ago, but the bases on which they sat can still be found in some locations.
This remains of this signal base is located in Brady Lake next to the lone track still in place. At one time they supported a semaphore signal.
The concrete in this base is slowly succumbing to the forces of nature wearing it down and perhaps it is only a matter of time before it become just another pile of gravel. But that won't be for a while.
Some Projects from Dabbled.org this year!
1. How to make a chair out of a champagne top, 2. Make a recycled picture frame ornament, 3. Make a Shrinky Santa, 4. Throw a White Elephant Party, 5. Make a Sweater Snake, 6. Halloween Monster Wreath Tutorial, 7. Henri, the Octo-puppet, 8. The Shrinkie Test Lab!, 9. Freezer Paper Stencil - Robots, 10. The Boy's homemade Play Stove, 11. Robot scarf , 12. Finger Puppet Bus, 13. The Baby Ele-purse, 14. Hacking an Ikea Kritter bed, 15. Wine Bottle Cozy (Gift Bag)
Created with fd's Flickr Toys.
I got it in my head to make some paislies. Easier said than done! The white one uses the half-closed ring technique by Tatman.
Although the Chestnut Teal occurs at wetlands hundreds of kilometres inland, the species’ strongholds are usually near the coast. It is one of the few species of Australian ducks that can tolerate habitats with highly saline water. They regularly occur in estuaries, inlets, exposed mudflats, coastal lagoons, saltmarsh and evaporation ponds at saltworks. Nevertheless, they also occur at freshwater wetlands. They usually feed at the margins of wetlands, among aquatic vegetation in the shallows or upending in deeper water, or dabbling on recently covered mudflats or sand.
My nephew Dan dabbles with stylised images and has put together this cracking depiction of Rugby League legend Sean Long as some sort of ancient rugby warrior beast. I've no idea how he makes these images, but if anyone from Preston Grasshoppers (or anywhere else for that matter) wants more information, or even a commission, then get in touch with me and I'll put you in contact with Dan.
Mallard Duck
The Mallard or Wild Duck is a Dabbling Duck which breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, the Falkland Islands and South Africa. This duck belongs to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae.
The male birds (drakes) have a glossy green head and are grey on wings and belly, while the females have mainly brown-speckled plumage. Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are gregarious. This species is the ancestor of most breeds of domestic ducks.
Lake Takanassee
Lake Takanassee is downstream of Whale Pond Brook, which flows through the Monmouth University campus in West Long Branch.
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The mallard (/ˈmælɑːrd/ or /ˈmælərd/) or wild duck (Anas platyrhynchos) is a dabbling duck which breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, the Falkland Islands and South Africa.[2] This duck belongs to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae.
The male birds (drakes) have a glossy green head and are grey on wings and belly, while the females (hens or ducks) have mainly brown-speckled plumage. Both sexes have an area of white-bordered black speculum feathers which commonly also include iridescent blue feathers especially among males. Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes. This species is the main ancestor of most breeds of domesticated ducks.[3]
Taxonomy and Evolution:
The mallard was one of the many bird species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his 18th-century work Systema Naturae, and still bears its original binomial name,[4] and in 1758, he had given it the scientific name Anas boschas.[5] The scientific name is from Latin Anas, "duck" and Ancient Greek platyrhynchus, "broad-billed" ( from platus, "broad" and rhunkhos, "bill").[6]
Mallard originally referred to any wild drake and it is sometimes still used this way.[7] It was derived from the Old French malart or mallart for "wild drake", although its true derivation is unclear.[8] It may be related to (or at least influenced by) an Old High German masculine proper name Madelhart, clues lying in the alternate English forms "maudelard" or "mawdelard".[9] Masle (male) has also been proposed as an influence.[10]
Mallards frequently interbreed with their closest relatives in the genus Anas, such as the American black duck, and also with species more distantly related, such as the northern pintail, leading to various hybrids that may be fully fertile.[11] This is quite unusual among such different species, and apparently is because the mallard evolved very rapidly and recently, during the Late Pleistocene.[12] The distinct lineages of this radiation are usually kept separate due to non-overlapping ranges and behavioural cues, but are still not fully genetically incompatible.[13] Mallards and their domesticated conspecifics are also fully interfertile.[14]
The genome of Anas platyrhynchos was sequenced in 2013.[15]
Certain mallards, by their divergent haplotype analysis, appear to be closer to their Indo-Pacific relatives, and certain others, to their American ones.[16] Considering mitochondrial DNA D-loop sequence data, they may have evolved in the general area of Siberia; mallard bones rather abruptly appear in food remains of ancient humans and other deposits of fossil bones in Europe, without a good candidate for a local predecessor species.[17] The large ice age palaeosubspecies which made up at least the European and west Asian populations during the Pleistocene has been named Anas platyrhynchos palaeoboschas.[18]
In their mitochondrial DNA, mallards are differentiated between North America and Eurasia;[19] however, in the nuclear genome there is a particular lack of genetic structure.[20] Haplotypes typical of American mallard relatives and spotbills can be found in mallards around the Bering Sea.[21] The Aleutian Islands hold a population of mallards that appear to be evolving towards a subspecies, as gene flow with other populations is very limited.[17]
The size of the mallard varies clinally, and birds from Greenland, although larger than birds further south, have smaller bills, paler plumage and are stockier.[22] They are sometimes separated as subspecies, the Greenland mallard (A. p. conboschas).[22]
Description:
The mallard is a medium-sized waterfowl species although it is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks. It is 50–65 cm (20–26 in) long (of which the body makes up around two-thirds), has a wingspan of 81–98 cm (32–39 in),[24] and weighs 0.72–1.58 kg (1.6–3.5 lb).[25][26] Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 25.7 to 30.6 cm (10.1 to 12.0 in), the bill is 4.4 to 6.1 cm (1.7 to 2.4 in) and the tarsus is 4.1 to 4.8 cm (1.6 to 1.9 in).[27]
The breeding male mallard is unmistakable, with a glossy bottle-green head and white collar which demarcates the head from the purple-tinged brown breast, grey brown wings, and a pale grey belly.[28] The rear of the male is black, with the dark tail having white borders.[29] The bill of the male is a yellowish orange tipped with black, while that of the female is generally darker ranging from black to mottled orange.[30] The female mallard is predominantly mottled with each individual feather showing sharp contrast from buff to very dark brown, a coloration shared by most female dabbling ducks, and has buff cheeks, eyebrow, throat and neck with a darker crown and eye-stripe.[29]
Both male and female mallards have distinct iridescent purple blue speculum feathers edged with white, prominent in flight or at rest, though temporarily shed during the annual summer moult.[31] Upon hatching, the plumage colouring of the duckling is yellow on the underside and face (with streaks by the eyes) and black on the back (with some yellow spots) all the way to the top and back of the head.[32] Its legs and bill are also black.[32] As it nears a month in age, the duckling's plumage will start becoming drab, looking more like the female (though its plumage is more streaked) and its legs will lose their dark grey colouring.[29] Two months after hatching, the fledgling period has ended and the duckling is now a juvenile.[33] Between three and four months of age, the juvenile can finally begin flying, as its wings are fully developed for flight (which can be confirmed by the sight of purple speculum feathers). Its bill will soon lose its dark grey colouring and its sex can finally be distinguished visually by three factors. The bill colouring is yellow in males, black and orange for females.[34] The breast feathers are reddish-brown for males, brown for females.[34] The centre tail feather is curled for males (called a drake feather), straight for females.[34] During the final period of maturity leading up to adulthood (6–10 months of age), the plumage of female juveniles remains the same while the plumage of male juveniles slowly changes to its characteristic colours.[35] This plumage change also applies to adult mallard males when they transition in and out of their non-breeding eclipse plumage at the beginning and the end of the summer moulting period.[35] The adulthood age for mallards is 14 months and the average life expectancy is 3 years, but they can live to twenty.[36] Several species of duck have brown-plumaged females which can be confused with the female mallard.[37] The female gadwall (A. strepera) has an orange-lined bill, white belly, black and white speculum which is seen as a white square on the wings in flight, and is a smaller bird.[29] More similar to the female mallard in North America are the American black duck (A. rubripes), which is notably darker hued in both sexes than the mallard,[38] and the mottled duck (A. fulvigula), which is somewhat darker than the female mallard, with no white edge on the speculum and slightly different bare-part colouration.[38]
In captivity, domestic ducks come in wild-type plumages, white, and other colours.[39] Most of these colour variants are also known in domestic mallards not bred as livestock, but kept as pets, aviary birds, etc., where they are rare but increasing in availability.[39]
A noisy species, the female has a deeper quack stereotypically associated with ducks.[40][41] Male mallards also make a sound which is phonetically similar to that of the female, with a typical quack; although it is a deep and raspy sound which can also sound like breeeeze.[42] When incubating a nest, or when offspring are present, females vocalise differently, making a call which sounds like a truncated version of the usual quack. They will also hiss if the nest or their offspring are threatened or interfered with. When taking off, the wings of a mallard produce a characteristic faint whistling noise.[43]
The mallard is a rare example of both Allen's Rule and Bergmann's Rule in birds.[44] Bergmann's Rule, which states that polar forms tend to be larger than related ones from warmer climates, has numerous examples in birds.[45] Allen's Rule says that appendages like ears tend to be smaller in polar forms to minimize heat loss, and larger in tropical and desert equivalents to facilitate heat diffusion, and that the polar taxa are stockier overall.[46] Examples of this rule in birds are rare, as they lack external ears. However, the bill of ducks is supplied with a few blood vessels to prevent heat loss.[47]
Due to the malleability of the mallard's genetic code, which gives it its vast interbreeding capability, mutations in the genes that decide plumage colour are very common and have resulted in a wide variety of hybrids such as Brewer's duck (mallard × gadwall, Anas strepera).[48]
Distribution and Habitat::
The mallard is widely distributed across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres; in North America from southern and central Alaska to Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands,[49] across Eurasia,[50] from Iceland[51] and southern Greenland[49] and parts of Morocco (North Africa)[51] in the west, Scandinavia[51] and Britain[51] to the north, and to Siberia,[52] Japan,[53] and South Korea,[53] in the east, south-eastern and south-western Australia[54] and New Zealand[55] in the Southern hemisphere.[24][56][57] It is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters farther south.[50] For example, in North America, it winters south to Southern United States and Northern Mexico,[50] but also regularly strays into Central America and the Caribbean between September and May.[58][59]
The mallard inhabits a wide range of habitat and climates, from Arctic tundra to subtropical regions.[60] It is found in both fresh- and salt-water wetlands, including parks, small ponds, rivers, lakes and estuaries, as well as shallow inlets and open sea within sight of the coastline.[61] Water depths of less than 1 metre (3.3 ft) are preferred, birds avoiding areas more than a few metres deep.[62] They are attracted to bodies of water with aquatic vegetation.[41]
Behaviour:
Feeding:
The mallard is omnivorous and very flexible in its choice of food.[63] Its diet may vary based on several factors, including the stage of the breeding cycle, short-term variations in available food, nutrient availability, and inter and intraspecific competition.[64] The majority of the mallard's diet seems to be made up of gastropods,[65] invertebrates (including beetles, flies, lepidopterans, dragonflies, and caddisflies),[66] crustaceans,[67] worms,[65] many varieties of seeds and plant matter,[65] and roots and tubers.[67] During the breeding season, male birds were recorded to have eaten 37.6% animal matter and 62.4% plant matter, most notably Echinochloa crus-galli, and nonlaying females ate 37.0% animal matter and 63.0% plant matter, while laying females ate 71.9% animal matter and only 28.1% plant matter.[68] Plants generally make up a larger part of the bird's diet, especially during autumn migration and in the winter.[69][70]
It usually feeds by dabbling for plant food or grazing;[71] there are reports of it eating frogs.[71] It usually nests on a river bank, but not always near water. It is highly gregarious outside of the breeding season and forms large flocks, which are known as sords.[72]
Breeding:
Mallards usually form pairs (in October and November in the Northern hemisphere) until the female lays eggs at the start of nesting season which is around the beginning of spring.[73] At this time she is left by the male who joins up with other males to await the moulting period which begins in June (in the Northern hemisphere[74]).[75] During the brief time before this, however, the males are still sexually potent and some of them either remain on standby to sire replacement clutches (for female mallards that have lost or abandoned their previous clutch, replacement clutch[76]) or forcibly mate with females that appear to be isolated or unattached regardless of their species and whether or not they have a brood of ducklings.[76][77]
Duckling, one to two days old, is fully capable of swimming
The nesting period can be very stressful for the female since she lays more than half her body weight in eggs.[78] She requires a lot of rest and a feeding/loafing area that is safe from predators. When seeking out a suitable nesting site, the female's preferences are areas that are well concealed, inaccessible to ground predators, or have few predators nearby. This can include nesting sites in urban areas such as roof gardens, enclosed courtyards, and flower boxes on window ledges and balconies more than one story up, which the ducklings cannot leave safely without human intervention. The clutch is 8–13 eggs, which are incubated for 27–28 days to hatching with 50–60 days to fledging.[79][80] The ducklings are precocial and fully capable of swimming as soon as they hatch.[81] However, filial imprinting compels them to instinctively stay near the mother not only for warmth and protection but also to learn about and remember their habitat as well as how and where to forage for food.[82] When ducklings mature into flight-capable juveniles, they learn about and remember their traditional migratory routes (unless they are born and raised in captivity). They may stay with their family group for up to a year, despite being independent and no longer needing protection.[83]
During the breeding season, both male and female mallards can become aggressive, driving off competitors to themselves or their mate by charging at them.[84] Males tend to 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.
The group of drakes, end up being left out, after the others are paired off with mating partners, sometimes targets an isolated female duck, even one of a different species, and proceeds to chase and peck at her until she weakens, at which point the males take turns copulating with the female.[85] Lebret (1961) calls this behaviour "Attempted Rape Flight" and Stanley Cramp & K.E.L. Simmons (1977) speak of "rape-intent flights".[85] Male mallards also occasionally chase other male ducks of a different species, and even each other, in the same way.[85] In one documented case of "homosexual necrophilia", a male mallard copulated with another male he was chasing after the chased male died upon flying into a glass window.[86] This paper was awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in 2003.[87]
Mallards are opportunistically targeted by brood parasites, occasionally having eggs laid in their nests by redheads, ruddy ducks, lesser scaup, gadwalls, northern shovelers, northern pintails, cinnamon teal, common goldeneyes, and other mallards.[88] These eggs are generally accepted when they resemble the eggs of the host mallard, although the hen may attempt to eject them or even abandon the nest if parasitism occurs during egg laying.[89]
Predators and Threats:
Mallards of all ages (but especially young ones) and in all locations must contend with a wide diversity of predators including raptors, mustelids, corvids, snakes, raccoons, opossums, skunks, turtles, large fish and felids and canids, including domesticated ones.[90] The most prolific natural predators of adult mallards are red foxes (which most often pick off brooding females) and the faster or larger birds of prey, i.e. peregrine falcons, Aquila eagles or Haliaeetus eagles.[91][92] In North America, adult mallards face no fewer than 15 species of birds of prey, from hen harriers and short-eared owls (both smaller than a mallard) to huge bald and golden eagles, and about a dozen species of mammalian predator, not counting several more avian and mammalian predators who threaten eggs and nestlings.[89]
Mallards are also preyed upon by other waterside apex predators, such as the grey heron (Ardea cinerea),[93] European herring gull (Larus argentatus), the Wels catfish (Silurus glanis) and the Northern pike (Esox lucius).[94] Crows (Corvus sp.) are also known to kill ducklings and adults on occasion.[95] Also, mallards may be attacked by larger anseriformes such as swans (Cygnus sp.) and geese during the breeding season, and are frequently driven off by these birds over territorial disputes. Mute swans (C. olor) have been known to attack mallards if they feel that the ducks pose a threat to their offspring.[96]
Conservation:
Unlike many waterfowl, mallards have benefited from human alterations to the world – so much so that they are now considered an invasive species in some regions.[97]
They are a common sight in urban parks, lakes, ponds, and other manmade water features in the regions they inhabit, and are often tolerated or encouraged among human habitat due to their placid nature towards humans and their beautiful and iridescent colours.[31] While most are not domesticated, mallards are so successful at coexisting in human regions that the main conservation risk they pose comes from the loss of genetic diversity among a region's traditional ducks once humans and mallards colonize an area. Mallards are very adaptable, being able to live and even thrive in urban areas which may have supported more localized, sensitive species of waterfowl before development.[98] The release of feral mallards in areas where they are not native sometimes creates problems through interbreeding with indigenous waterfowl.[97][99] These non-migratory mallards interbreed with indigenous wild ducks from local populations of closely related species through genetic pollution by producing fertile offspring.[99] Complete hybridization of various species of wild ducks gene pools could result in the extinction of many indigenous waterfowl.[99] The wild mallard itself is the ancestor of most domestic ducks and its naturally evolved wild gene pool gets genetically polluted in turn by the domesticated and feral populations.[100][101][102]
Over time, a continuum of hybrids ranging between almost typical examples of either species will develop; the speciation process beginning to reverse itself.[103] This has created conservation concerns for relatives of the mallard, such as the Hawaiian duck,[104][105] the A. s. superciliosa subspecies of the Pacific black duck,[104][106] the American black duck,[107][108] the mottled duck,[109][110] Meller's duck,[111] the yellow-billed duck,[103] and the Mexican duck,[104][110] in the latter case even leading to a dispute whether these birds should be considered a species[112] (and thus entitled to more conservation research and funding) or included in the mallard. In the cases mentioned below and above, however, ecological changes and hunting have led to a decline of local species; for example, the New Zealand grey duck population declined drastically due to overhunting in the mid-20th century.[106] Hybrid offspring of Hawaiian ducks seem to be less well-adapted to native habitat, and utilizing them in reintroduction projects apparently reduces success.[104][113] In summary, the problems of mallards "hybridizing away" relatives is more a consequence of local ducks declining than of mallards spreading; allopatric speciation and isolating behaviour have produced today's diversity of mallard-like ducks despite the fact that in most, if not all, of these populations, hybridization must have occurred to some extent.[114]
References:
*Wikipedia
1. Dabbled Holiday Contest - Tree Skirt from Bridesmaid Dress - 1, 2. Dabbled Holiday Contest - Tree Skirt from Bridesmaid Dress - 3, 3. Dabbled Holiday Contest - Tree Skirt from Bridesmaid Dress - 2, 4. Dabbled Holiday Contest - Mini Snow Globes - 2, 5. Dabbled Holiday Contest - Mini Snow Globes - 1, 6. Dabbled Holiday Contest - Mini Snow Globes - 3
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Before kids I dabbled in gardening and I even made a couple things but I definitely wouldn't classify myself as crafty or creative but something happened when I had kids, it sparked some kind of creative energy. First it was knitting... I knit scarf after scarf and acquired quite a stash of fabulous yarn. Then it was photography... a journey that is now part of who I am. As knitting waned I took classes in jewelry making which continue to this day and my stash of materials mimic what used to be yarn. Now I love how all of my passions (including gardening) can be combined and shared through photography. If I couldn't be creative I would feel imprisoned.
If you are interested I sell my jewelry in my Etsy shop, Rejardin, www.etsy.com/shop/Rejardin. Including a bracelet that I'm making to raise funds for the Alzheimer's Association, www.etsy.com/listing/95451850/alzheimers-support-bracelet.
Linking up with Urban Muser and {in the picture} www.urbanmuser.com/2012/03/in-picture-march-linky-and-giv...