1-10-2016 CHELMSFORD, ESSEX - MALLARD (FEMALE) (Anas platyrhynchos)

The female is only brown and white. She is smaller than the male and has straight tail feathers. Body Length: 20-28 inches. Wing tip to wing tip: 30-40 inches.

Females and juveniles are mottled brown with orange-and-brown bills. Both sexes have a white-bordered, blue “speculum” patch in the wing. Mallards are “dabbling ducks”—they feed in the water by tipping forward and grazing on underwater plants. They almost never dive.

Unlike some waterfowl, like Mute Swans, which stay together year in and year out, Mallards only hook up for a single season. For them it’s one and done. Each fall Mallards get together in large flocks and begin the process of selecting a new mate for the following spring. They perform an assortment of wild courtship displays until pairs are formed. Once paired off the new couple has their own mating rituals, and one of these is called the “inciting” display. Here the female follows the male around, no matter where he goes.