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Mallard |
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Anas platyrhynchos |
| Description: 18-27" Male has conspicuous green head, white neck ring, chestnut breast, grayish body, speculum metallic purplish-blue, female mottled brown with white tail, bill mottled orange and black | Habitat: Abundant throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Found near shallow fresh or brackish water in a variety of habitats including marshes, swamps, wetlands, ponds, lakes. After breeding season, also found near coast on estuaries, bays and other sheltered sites. Avoids fast-moving water. |
| Nesting: 8 to 10 pale greenish buff eggs in a shallow bowl of grass lined with down, hidden in marsh or on brush pile | Range: breeds from Alaska, Canada southward to Texas, winters throughout US and in Central America, tropics |
| Voice: males utter soft reedy notes, females a loud "calling" quack | Diet: Seeds and shoots of sedge, grass, and aquatic vegetation, grain, acorns; insects, aquatic invertebrates. Laying females may eat 2 times more animal food than males or non-laying females. |
| Notes: Very tolerant of humans. Hardy, often wintering far north as long as it can find food and open water, popular North American species, during molt female flightless for 32 days. |
| When present in Oklahoma: more abundant in winter, but seen statewide year-round |