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Mallard female
Anas platyrhynchos
36.3549, -105.294
Field Notes
Description:
Mallards are large ducks with hefty bodies, rounded heads, and wide, flat bills. Like many “dabbling ducks” the body is long and the tail rides high out of the water, giving a blunt shape. In flight their wings are broad and set back toward the rear.
Male Mallards have a dark, iridescent-green head and bright yellow bill. The gray body is sandwiched between a brown breast and black rear. Females and juveniles are mottled brown with orange-and-brown bills. Both sexes have a white-bordered, blue “speculum” patch in the wing.
Habitat:
Small Lake in Angel Fire, NM.
Notes:
Most of the mallard's diet is made up of plants. It eats the seeds of grasses and sedges and the leaves, stems, and seeds of aquatic plants. It occasionally eats insects and crustaceans and mollusks, especially when it is young. It prefers to forage in water that is less than 16 inches 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.
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