The Mallards

The Mallard Duck is a remarkable creature. Birders rarely give them a second glance or take photos of them, because they are so common. You can see them anywhere, from ponds in city parks to irrigated farmlands or wild marshlands. You can see them on almost every continent. They are native to most of the temperate northern hemisphere, and haver adapted after introductions into many southern hemisphere locations. In North America, the mallard population is over 10 million birds.

From a birder's perspective, mallards are totally boring. Not being a true birder, I see them as remarkable for their ability to live almost anywhere; breed prolifically; eat a variety of insects, plants, and sometimes small birds; and enjoy all sorts of environments. Sort of like humans.

Mallards have a few close relatives -- species that may have mallard ancestors but have become isolated or otherwise estranged from their mallard relatives, and thus evolved into separate species. Below are some of the photos that Len and I have taken over the years, of mallards and their close relatives.

 

Mallard Duck, Ann Arbor, Michigan. We have them EVERYWHERE! The male, with his iridescent green head and bright orange feet is actually quite attractive.

Shinobazo Pond, Ueno Park, Tokyo. The remotest place I've seen mallards.

Mallards have many relatives...

 

Black Duck, Ann Arbor.  The black duck is a related to the mallard. They are comparatively rare; we see them in small numbers in the winter. "Historically, the mallard's close relative, the American black duck, was the most abundant duck in the Atlantic Flyway, and black ducks were once far more numerous in the Mississippi Flyway than they are today. Black duck breeding populations have declined by more than 50 percent since the late 1950s. Habitat loss and competition and hybridization with mallards are believed to be the primary causes of past black duck declines." (source)

Black Ducks, this week in Ann Arbor.

Black Duck, Lancaster County, PA.  The above photo shows the wing patch that identifies them.

 

Mottled Duck, Merrit Island, Florida. (Photographed with American widgeons.) The mottled duck is another close relative of mallards. Most mottled ducks -- around 600,000 birds -- live along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana, but these are members of a smaller population of around 40,000 ducks. "These Florida mottled ducks are typically found in freshwater emergent wetlands, wet prairies, and seasonally flooded marshes. In addition, mottled ducks from the Gulf Coast have been introduced in coastal South Carolina. Important mottled duck foods include rice, moist-soil plant seeds, submerged aquatic vegetation, and invertebrates." (source)

 

Mexican Duck, Tucson, AZ. Until 2020, the Mexican Duck was classified as a subspecies of mallard, but after further study, the American Ornithological Society confirmed them as a separate species. "After analyzing the duck’s DNA, the organization reclassified the duck as closely related to mallards, black ducks, and mottled ducks, but distinct." (source)

Hawaiian Duck or Koloa, Hanalei NWR, Kauai, Hawaii.  This is a rare and endangered species, endemic to the Hawaiian Islands, mainly found on Kauai. It is under threat from habitat loss, predation by wild and domestic animals, and interbreeding with mallards. Ongoing efforts at conservation of this rare species may be succeeding in protecting it, particularly efforts to keep mallards out of Kauai and thus reduce hybridization. (source)

Unfortunately, the overwhelming ability of the mallard to hybridize with many other species, such as the Hawaiian Duck, makes them unwelcome and invasive in many places, such as New Zealand, where they are a threat to the New Zealand grey duck, in South America where they threaten various native species, or in Florida, where they threaten the mottled duck.

Unappreciated Species

It's easy to overlook the remarkable persistence of some species as a defining and interesting feature. A while back I wrote about the coot, a very common bird that's often ignored by birders. (See "A Remarkable Bird, The Coot.") There are a few other birds that fascinate me in the same way, for their ability to live in a wide variety of environments and to populate -- or even overpopulate -- the places they go.

Blog post © 2022 mae sander. Photos copyright 2011-2022 by mae and len sander.