Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)

Although the Mallard has a specific and recognisable plumage, with the drake sporting a fine bottle-green head and cute curling-up tail, centuries of domestication have made use of the Mallard’s inherent genetic variation to produce a wide range of different breeds with different colours and characteristics. This meddling, together with extensive hybridisation with all manner of suitors in the wild and otherwise, has further mixed the genes to create a subclass of Mallard that look nothing like the original. So you can find pure white ducks, glossy black ducks, ducks with crests, ducks with huge, bloated bodies and ducks with hideous thin necks, and they are all, essentially Mallards. They often confuse birdwatchers into thinking that they have stumbled upon some special bird, so rare that it is not in the book.

But this resilient species is still, in its original form, irrepressibly abundant. Part of that success is down to its ability to utilise just about every feeding method known to a duck, except for diving (but it occasionally does even this). So it can dabble with the best dabblers, it can up-end, immerse just its head and neck, it can graze on grass and it can steal food from others. It takes a wide range of foods, both plant and animal, and is so opportunistic that it will simply indulge in whatever food item is most readily available on-site. That, of course, is the recipe for a successful species.

For breeding the Mallard is equally tolerant. It uses a wide variety of sites, placing its nest on the ground under various forms of thick vegetation, in the open on islands, in a hole in a tree, on the old nest of a large bird, or on top of a building. Most Mallards are somewhat territorial so the nests are well dispersed, but there are times when they can be placed only a few metres apart. In common with other ducks the female builds a rudimentary structure, just a hollow surrounded by fragments of plant debris and lined with a great deal of down from her own breast. During incubation the male leaves the area and the female broods and tends the young without his conspicuous presence.

Considering that the Mallard’s pair-bond breaks up during incubation, and that most birds probably change their mates from year to year, the process of forming pairs in the first place is remarkably prolonged. It begins, in fact, in the autumn, when both sexes begin to mix in their winter flocks and the males are wearing smart new plumage. Courtship gets underway, as with other ducks, with a communal display by a number of males (usually no more than ten). It is easy to miss, because it consists of a number of subtle gestures, such as wags of the tail, shakes of the head and stretching, but there are also more elaborate routines, including placing the bill on the water surface and, with a flick of the head, throwing up droplets of water in the female’s direction. This last “water-flick” move is generally followed by a lifting of the front and rear of the body, the so-called “head-up-tail-up” posture.

Eventually a female makes a choice and, often in the latter half of the winter, pair-formation then switches to repeated cameos in which the chosen male fights with and chases away rival rejected males, with the female’s complicit encouragement. The male’s proficiency at driving peers away is an important show of its fitness as a mate. As a reward, copulation is frequent from early spring onwards; both sexes approach each other and nod their heads up and down repeatedly, before the male eventually mounts.