Life Cycle
Mallard courtship begins in the fall and by winter pairs will have formed. If a pair is part of a migrating group, the pair migrates to the female's territory. The female mallard lays eight to ten eggs in a nest on the ground. Nests are depressions in the ground and are usually no further than 100 yards from water. The nest is lined with down and is usually hidden in tall grass.
The eggs take about a month to hatch. The female incubates the eggs. The male will leave once incubation has begun. Within a day of hatching, the mother leads the chicks to water for their first swim. The chicks fledge when they are about eight weeks old.
Behavior
After the mating season is over, some mallards in colder climates migrate in flocks to their wintering grounds. Other mallards in warmer areas where there is plenty of food will stay year-round. The mallard is the ancestor of almost all breeds of domestic ducks. It breeds with feral domestic ducks. The offspring of these mismatched pairs exhibit a wide-variety of color patterns. The mallard also mates with other duck species like the American black duck and the northern pintail. In fact, there is some concern that the black duck species is in danger from hybridization with the mallard.
Image Credits: Clipart.com unless otherwise noted
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I wasn't skilled enough to copy and paste the pictures but as I've been recalling the animals and fowl we had on our California ranch(seven acres),this morning as I looked out of my front window a male and female Mallard were parading around my barren front rock yard.
Canadian Geese are not rare here for I have to slow down and stop as they cross the road many mornings when I"m heading for the computer lab.
In California, our children hatched the first ones out in an incubator.
Our Katie with her fold, Dawn-Riverside, California-1965
