Have you ev er seen a pretty duck fly over your head? Did it have a blue patch on its wing? It might have been a mallard duck. The male mallard duck has a really pretty head that is green with a bright yellow beak. The female has a brown beak and yellow and brown fea thers. In a pond, a lake, or even a stream you can find the mallard in the Northern Hemisphere. A male is called a drake and a female is called a hen. The mallard duck can measure up to as much as 70 centimeters (27 inches) in length and weigh as much as 1.3 kilograms (3 pounds). The mallard duck eats seeds, nuts, fruit, grass, small fish, tadpoles, and insects. The hen lays the eggs and takes care of them until the eggs hatch. After the eggs hatch the hen will take the chicks out for their first swimming lesson. In the winter the mallard ducks will pair up. The m allard duck will get a different mate each year. The mallard duck is in the same group of birds called puddle ducks. I hope you learned a lot about this wonderful creature.

I got my wonderful information on the mallard in MALL ARD DUCKS by Bill Ivy.

If you see a bird with webbed feet, it may be a mallard duck. Does it have an orange or yellow beak? Can you see a blue patch on its wing? If so, you're face to face with a mallard duck. It glides across the water, looking for food, bobbing and dipping its head in the water. The water is both a place to hide from predators and a place to eat. What do mallard ducks eat anyway? Well, mallard ducks eat small fish, plants, tadpoles, and if they're in the mood, frogs. Mallard ducks lay their eggs in April. If just one egg is the slightest bit injured, a whole new batch is made!

This information came from COLORADO WILDLIFE by Jeff Rennicke.