Mallard

Description

Mallards are up to 58 centimeters long, their wingspan is up to 95 centimeters. In the period between July and August, the male wears his basic plumage and looks very much like the female. The male's beak is still distinctly yellow, sometimes with a greenish tinge, while the female's beak is orange in base colour and sometimes completely covered with dark gray to brown, sometimes only in the middle. The female has a mottled brown-gray colouration, making them well camouflaged on land. The only noticeable feature is the blue wing patch, which matches that of the male. In flight, the white edging of the blue wing patch is visible in both sexes. The plumage of the drake is gray with brown breast, brownish back, and black uppertail and undertail coverts. The head is metallic green with a white throat ring underneath, and the beak is greenish yellow. On the trailing edge of the wings is a metallic blue band fringed with white, the wing patch. The black feathers at the tip of the tail are curled up into drake feathers.

The mallard is very adaptable and can be found almost everywhere where there are bodies of water. Mallards swim on lakes, in ponds, inland waters, mountain lakes and also stay in small forest and meadow ditches.

The text is a translation of an excerpt from Wikipedia (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockente). On wikipedia the text is available under a  „Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike“licence. Status: 17 December 2021