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Wildlife
- Birds - |
Mallard
(Anas platyrhynchos) Y |
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RANGE: Breeds from northern Alaska east to southern Keewatin and
across to southern Maine south to California, the southern Great
Basin and New Mexico, and from Oklahoma east through the Ohio
Valley to Virginia. Winters generally from southern Alaska and
southern Canada south to central Mexico. Introduced and
established in the Hawaiian Islands.
STATUS: The most common and widely distributed duck in North
America.
HABITAT: Inhabits ponds, lakes, rivers, streams, marshes, wet
meadows, and wooded swamps of primarily mixed and shortgrass
prairie; also inhabits boreal forest region and sub-arctic
deltas. Winters on inland ponds and rivers with some open water;
less commonly in coastal marshes.
NEST: Typically nests on the ground in dry or slightly marshy
areas within 300 feet of water, sometimes as far as 1.5 miles
away in grasslands. Conceals nest well in snowberry clumps,
among weeds and grasses, in pastures, stubble, or cultivated
fields, or in marsh vegetation; rarely in cavities, on hollowed
tops of stubs, or in tree crotches.
FOOD: Feeds by dabbling in shallow waters of ponds, sloughs,
lakes, streams, and swamps, and by grazing and gleaning in
grainfields and meadows. Consumes seeds, acorns, nuts, waste
grains, aquatic insects, mollusks, tadpoles, frogs, small fish,
and fish eggs.
REFERENCES: Adamus et al. 2001, Bellrose 1976, DeGraff et al.
1980, Johnsgard 1975b, Miller 1999, Palmer 1976a, Shunk 2004,
Terres 1980. |
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