12-5-2022 CANAL LES FONTS OLIVA, VALENCIA - MALLARD (JUVENILE) (Anas platyrhynchos)

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/39782-Trachemys-scripta

20-6-2019 OLIVA MARJAL, VALENCIA - MALLARD (JUVENILE) (Anas platyrhynchos)

8-5-2019 OLIVA MARJAL, VALENCIA - MALLARD (JUVENILE) (Anas platyrhynchos)

28-4-2019 PALMA DE GANDIA, VALENCIA - MALLARD (JUVENILE) (Anas platyrhynchos)

8-4-2019 GANDIA MARJAL, VALENCIA - MALLARD (JUVENILE) (Anas platyrhynchos)

19-7-2018 OLIVA MARJAL, VALENCIA - MALLARD (JUVENILE) (Anas platyrhynchos)

17-5-2018 OLIVA PLAYA, VALENCIA - MALLARD (JUVENILE) (Anas platyrhynchos)

27-4-2018 OLIVA MARJAL. VALENCIA - MALLARD (JUVENILE) (Anas platyrhynchos)

5-11-2017 GANDIA MARJAL, VALENCIA - MALLARD (JUVENILE) (Anas platyrhynchos)

Mallard ducklings stay with the hen until they can fly at roughly two months old. In late summer, after the brood has become independent, the adults will molt, making them flightless for a period of time.

It takes 50-70 days for ducklings to attain flight status, and survival during this period is highly variable, ranging from less than 10 percent to as high as 70 percent.

On average, mallard ducks lay around 12 eggs in a clutch. Of these, around 10 will hatch. Only two chicks will survive until adulthood.

Unlike songbirds, baby ducks and geese leave the nest almost immediately after birth, and will follow their mom closely. They already know how to find their own food, but still need their families for warmth and protection.

She will usually return within a half-hour if the area has become quiet again and the threat is gone. She is very protective of her babies and will not go far or stay away for very long. If the mother does not return to her babies within 1-hour, the ducklings should be rescued and brought to Wildlife Rescue.

Mallards eat a variety of natural and human-produced foods including: seeds of bulrushes, pondweeds, millet, sedges, smartweed and wild rice; stems, leaves and tubers of many aquatic plants; and acorns.

The female Mallard has between five and 14 light green eggs that she incubates for 30 days.

The ducklings are lead to water as soon as their soft, downy feathers are dry. ...

Most Mallard ducks live for one or two years, but some can live as long as 16 years!

Mallards swim with their tail held above the water.

12-6-2017 OLIVA MARJAL, VALENCIA - MALLARD (JUVENILE) (Anas platyrhynchos)

Mallards fly in groups called flocks. Like most migratory birds, mallards fly in the famous V formation. During winter migration, mallards fly south in search of warm weather, often resting at the same spots year after year. Migrating mallards can travel great distances, relying on rivers, coasts, and valleys to find their way.

A female mallard lays up to a dozen eggs in nests on the ground near water, often in a small depression or tree hole. She lines the nest with warm down plucked from her undercoat. Soon after birth, baby ducks, called ducklings, open their eyes. A little more than a day after hatching, ducklings can run, swim, and forage for food on their own. They stay in the nest for less than a month. A group of ducklings is called a brood. Outside the nest, the brood sticks close by the mother for safety, often following behind her in a neat, single-file line.

Mallards nest on the ground on dry land that is close to water; nests are generally concealed under overhanging grass or other vegetation. Occasionally, Mallards nest in agricultural fields, especially alfalfa but also winter wheat, barley, flax, and oats. Both urban and wild populations readily nest in artificial nesting structures. Pairs search for nest sites together, typically on evening flights circling low over the habitat. Occasionally nests are placed on floating mats of vegetation or woven into plant stems that rise out of the water.

Mallards are an abundant city and suburban park duck and because of constant feedings by park visitors, they can become very tame and approachable. In more natural settings and where Mallards are heavily hunted, they can be very wary of approaching people. They commonly associate with and may hybridize with other dabbling ducks. Mallards have a huge variety of displays that can be fascinating to watch and decipher. Most displays are ritualized versions of common motions: males may face off with a head-bob, threaten an aggressor with an open bill, or push against each other, breast to breast. Paired males defend their territories with vigorous acrobatic chases. Males court females by shaking or flicking the head side to side, looking over their shoulder, or raising up in the water and flapping their wings. Several males often gather around a female to display. A female encourages a male by nodding her head back and forth or paddling with her head held low.

The female forms a shallow depression or bowl on the ground in moist earth. She does not carry material to the nest but rather pulls vegetation she can reach toward her while sitting on nest. During egg-laying phase, she lines the nest with grasses, leaves, and twigs from nearby. She also pulls tall vegetation over to conceal herself and her nest. After incubation begins, she plucks down feathers from her breast to line the nest and cover her eggs. The finished nest is about a foot across, with a bowl for the eggs that is 1–6 inches deep and 6–9 inches across.

You'll find mallard ducks near ponds, marshes, streams, and lakes, where they feed on plants, invertebrates, fish, and insects. Mallards are dabbling, or surface-feeding, ducks because they eat by tipping underwater for food—head down, feet and tail in the air—rather than diving. Mallards also forage and graze for food on land.

The male mallard duck, called a drake, sports a glossy green head, a white ring around its neck and a rich, chestnut-brown breast. The mottled brown female mallard looks downright dull next to the male's showy feathers.

The mallard duck's outer feathers are waterproof, thanks to oil that’s secreted from a gland near the tail. Beneath this tightly packed waterproof layer of feathers lies a soft, warm layer of feathers called down. Twice a year, mallards molt, or shed, their flight feathers, temporarily grounding the birds for several weeks until the feathers grow back.

18-5-2017 OLIVA MARJAL, VALENCIA - MALLARD (JUVENILE)

17-6-2015 OLIVA MARJAL, VALENCIA - MALLARD (JUVENILE) (Anas platyrhynchos)

Mallards usually form pairs (in October and November in the Northern Hemisphere) until the female lays eggs at the start of the nesting season, which is around the beginning of spring. At this time she is left by the male who joins up with other males to await the moulting period, which begins in June (in the Northern Hemisphere). During the brief time before this, however, the males are still sexually potent and some of them either remain on standby to sire replacement clutches (for female mallards that have lost or abandoned their previous clutch) or forcibly mate with females that appear to be isolated or unattached regardless of their species and whether or not they have a brood of ducklings.

Nesting sites are typically on the ground, hidden in vegetation where the female's speckled plumage serves as effective camouflage, but female mallards have also been known to nest in hollows in trees, boathouses, roof gardens and on balconies, sometimes resulting in hatched offspring having difficulty following their parent to water.

Egg clutches number 8–13 creamy white to greenish-buff eggs free of speckles. They measure about 58 mm (2.3 in) in length and 32 mm (1.3 in) in width. The eggs are laid on alternate days, and incubation begins when the clutch is almost complete. Incubation takes 27–28 days and fledging takes 50–60 days. The ducklings are precocial and fully capable of swimming as soon as they hatch. However, filial imprinting compels them to instinctively stay near the mother, not only for warmth and protection but also to learn about and remember their habitat as well as how and where to forage for food. Though adoptions are known to occur, female mallards typically do not tolerate stray ducklings near their broods, and will violently attack and drive away any unfamiliar young, sometimes going as far as to kill them.

When ducklings mature into flight-capable juveniles, they learn about and remember their traditional migratory routes (unless they are born and raised in captivity). In New Zealand, where mallards are naturalised, the nesting season has been found to be longer, eggs and clutches are larger and nest survival is generally greater compared with mallards in their native range.

In cases where a nest or brood fails, some mallards may mate for a second time in an attempt to raise a second clutch, typically around early-to-mid summer. In addition, mallards may occasionally breed during the autumn in cases of unseasonably warm weather; one such instance of a 'late' clutch occurred in November 2011, in which a female successfully hatched and raised a clutch of eleven ducklings at the London Wetland Centre.

During the breeding season, both male and female mallards can become aggressive, driving off competitors to themselves or their mate by charging at them. Males tend to fight more than females and attack each other by repeatedly pecking at their rival's chest, ripping out feathers and even skin on rare occasions. Female mallards are also known to carry out 'inciting displays', which encourage other ducks in the flock to begin fighting. It is possible that this behaviour allows the female to evaluate the strength of potential partners.

The drakes that end up being left out after the others have paired off with mating partners sometimes target an isolated female duck, even one of a different species, and proceed to chase and peck at her until she weakens, at which point the males take turns copulating with the female. Lebret (1961) calls this behaviour "Attempted Rape Flight", and Stanley Cramp and K.E.L. Simmons (1977) speak of "rape-intent flights". Male mallards also occasionally chase other male ducks of a different species, and even each other, in the same way. In one documented case of "homosexual necrophilia", a male mallard copulated with another male he was chasing after the chased male died upon flying into a glass window.[100] This paper was awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in 2003.

Mallards are opportunistically targeted by brood parasites, occasionally having eggs laid in their nests by redheads, ruddy ducks, lesser scaup, gadwalls, northern shovelers, northern pintails, cinnamon teal, common goldeneyes, and other mallards. These eggs are generally accepted when they resemble the eggs of the host mallard, but the hen may attempt to eject them or even abandon the nest if parasitism occurs during egg laying.

29-5-2016 VILLALONGA RESERVOIR - MALLARD (JUVENILE) (Anas platyrhynchos)

Mallards are found across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres; in North America, their range extends from southern and central Alaska to Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, across the Palearctic, from Iceland and southern Greenland and parts of Morocco (North Africa) in the west, Scandinavia and Britain to the north, and to Siberia, Japan, and South Korea. Also in the east, it ranges to south-eastern and south-western Australia and New Zealand in the Southern hemisphere. Mallards are strongly migratory in the northern parts of their breeding range and winter farther south. They live in a wide range of habitats and climates, from the Arctic tundra to subtropical regions. They can be found in both fresh- and salt-water wetlands, including parks, small ponds, rivers, lakes, and estuaries, as well as shallow inlets and open seas within sight of the coastline. Water depths of less than 0.9 m (3.0 ft) are preferred, with birds avoiding areas more than a few meters deep. They are attracted to bodies of water with aquatic vegetation.

Mallards are diurnal birds that spend most of their time feeding. They usually feed by dabbling for plant food or grazing. They are highly gregarious outside of the breeding season and form large flocks, which are known as "sordes". However, during the breeding season, both male and female mallards can become aggressive, driving off competitors to themselves or their mate by charging at them. Males typically fight more than females and attack each other by repeatedly pecking at their rival's chest, ripping out feathers and even skin on rare occasions. Females may also carry out 'inciting displays', which encourage other ducks in the flock to begin fighting. In general, mallards are noisy birds. Females have the deep ‘quack’ stereotypically associated with ducks. Males make a sound phonetically similar to that of the female, a typical ‘quack’, but it is deeper and quieter compared to that of the female. When incubating a nest, or when offspring are present, females vocalize differently, making a call that sounds like a truncated version of the usual ‘quack’. In addition, females hiss if the nest or offspring are threatened or interfered with. When taking off, the wings of a mallard produce a characteristic faint whistling noise.

Mallards have a monogamous mating system. However, they widely practice so-called “extra-pair copulation”, and paired males are known to chase females that are not their mates. Nesting starts in April, reaching its peak in May. During this period, mated pairs are seen circling in the evenings low over the habitat and looking for a suitable nesting site. When the site is chosen, the female constructs the nest on the ground, near a water body, laying 9-13 eggs, which are incubated for 26-28 days. Chicks of this species are precocial; once born, they are able to swim, being introduced to water within 12 hours after hatching. Right after mating, male mallards usually leave, gathering into male flocks for molting in early June, while the females stay with the offspring, caring for the chicks for 42-60 days. Both males and females reach reproductive maturity at 1 year of age.

17-5-2016 OLIVA MARJAL - MALLARD (JUVENILE) (Anas platyrhynchos)

A female mallard lays up to a dozen eggs in nests on the ground near water, often in a small depression or tree hole. She lines the nest with warm down plucked from her undercoat. Soon after birth, baby ducks, called ducklings, open their eyes. A little more than a day after hatching, ducklings can run, swim, and forage for food on their own. They stay in the nest for less than a month. A group of ducklings is called a brood. Outside the nest, the brood sticks close by the mother for safety, often following behind her in a neat, single-file line.

Once hatched, the ducklings will stay in the nest for at least 10 hours while they dry and get used to using their legs. Then, usually in the early morning, the female leads them to water. Bad weather may delay this, but the sooner the ducklings get to water to feed, the better their chances of survival.

Baby ducklings are ready to go within a few hours after they hatch. They can swim, waddle, feed themselves, and find food right away. Their mother will watch over them and help protect them for the next few months. After around two months, the ducklings can fly and will become independent.

Incubation and rearing take prodigious effort and sacrifice. Once the clutch is complete, the female remains on the nest for nearly 23 hours a day, with two short breaks – usually one before 9am and the other after 4pm. Every half an hour or so, day or night, she shifts position to ensure all eggs are covered. She plucks downy feathers from her breast to create an ‘incubation patch’ to keep the eggs close to her skin at a steady 37.5°C, and sits patiently for some 28 days, forever aware of danger.

Her burden doesn’t reduce when the eggs hatch. Now there are between six and 13 highly mobile ducklings to care for, each capable of running and feeding themselves within a few hours. The female quickly leads them to water; in these first fraught hours she may call 200 times a minute.

Alarm calls summon the brood to regroup, while the female may also distract potential predators with a broken-wing display. Even so, losses are high. It can be 50 more days before the young are self-sufficient, and thankfully the females can lay up to four clutches a year.

Females sometimes test the mettle of their mates by suddenly taking off and expecting the male to follow. Rivals often join these flights of one female and several males.

If you hear incessant loud quacking from a female in early spring, this might be part of a nest-site assessment. It is thought the calls serve to attract predators, which then betray their presence and allow cautious birds to abandon a ‘high risk’ nest site.

For various reasons, females don’t always lead their ducklings to the nearest pond. Indeed, they might well change ponds frequently if the mother isn’t satisfied with things. That’s why you so often see parties of ducklings ‘commuting’.

15-5-2016 VILLALONGA RESERVOIR - MALLARD (JUVENILE) (Anas platyrhynchos)

Visit a wetland in the spring and it can sometimes feel as though you’re in the way – at least as far as mallards are concerned. Mallard eggs are normally laid anytime between March or July, but they’ve been known to appear much earlier, so you can expect a steady stream of fluffballs throughout the spring and summer period.

The paths seem to need temporary traffic lights to regulate the broods of scampering, fluffy ducklings crossing, one after the other, like the members of an unruly school party. Wander around the trails and ponds and you’re plunged into an atmosphere of business and self-absorption; a loud quack here, a splashing dispute there, the hurrying away of a watchful female. That’s because our most successful wild duck’s breeding season is in full swing.

Mallards can hardly resist the ponds, grassy banks, and quiet areas of scrub and woodland provided on our reserves, especially given the sympathetic management, such as the provision of piles of vegetation and pollarded willows for nests. In the early season, pairs prospect together, the male guarding as the female disappears into the greenery or a hole. Almost as soon as a site is chosen, the female begins the clutch, laying an egg a day for a week or more. Shortly afterwards, the male leaves.

Incubation and rearing take prodigious effort and sacrifice. Once the clutch is complete, the female remains on the nest for nearly 23 hours a day, with two short breaks – usually one before 9am and the other after 4pm. Every half an hour or so, day or night, she shifts position to ensure all eggs are covered. She plucks downy feathers from her breast to create an ‘incubation patch’ to keep the eggs close to her skin at a steady 37.5°C, and sits patiently for some 28 days, forever aware of danger.

Her burden doesn’t reduce when the eggs hatch. Now there are between six and 13 highly mobile ducklings to care for, each capable of running and feeding themselves within a few hours. The female quickly leads them to water; in these first fraught hours she may call 200 times a minute.

24-4-2016 CANAL LES FONTS OLIVA, VALENCIA - MALLARD (JUVENILE) (Anas platyrhynchos)

The mallard (/ˈmælɑːrd, ˈmælərd/) or wild duck (Anas platyrhynchos) is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa. It has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Falkland Islands, and South Africa. This duck belongs to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae. Males have green heads, while the females (hens or ducks) have mainly brown-speckled plumage. Both sexes have an area of white-bordered black or iridescent purple or blue feathers called a speculum on their wings; males especially tend to have blue speculum feathers. The mallard is 50–65 cm (20–26 in) long, of which the body makes up around two-thirds the length. The wingspan is 81–98 cm (32–39 in) and the bill is 4.4 to 6.1 cm (1.7 to 2.4 in) long. It is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks, weighing 0.7–1.6 kg (1.5–3.5 lb). Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes.

The female lays 8 to 13 creamy white to greenish-buff spotless eggs, on alternate days. Incubation takes 27 to 28 days and fledging takes 50 to 60 days. The ducklings are precocial and fully capable of swimming as soon as they hatch.

The mallard or wild duck (Anas platyrhynchos) is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Falkland Islands, and South Africa. This duck belongs to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae.  Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes.

The mallard is widely distributed across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres; in North America its range extends from southern and central Alaska to Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, across the Palearctic, from Iceland and southern Greenland and parts of Morocco (North Africa) in the west, Scandinavia and Britain to the north, and to Siberia, Japan, and South Korea. Also in the east, it ranges to south-eastern and south-western Australia and New Zealand in the Southern hemisphere It is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters farther south.

The mallard inhabits a wide range of habitats and climates, from the Arctic tundra to subtropical regions. It is found in both fresh- and salt-water wetlands, including parks, small ponds, rivers, lakes and estuaries, as well as shallow inlets and open sea within sight of the coastline. Water depths of less than 0.9 metres (3.0 ft) are preferred, with birds avoiding areas more than a few metres deep. They are attracted to bodies of water with aquatic vegetation.