Notes ⁷

Easily found wherever there's water, these ducks readily acclimate to humans and often live and breed with loose domestic ducks. Mallards (and their domestic descendants) are the only North American ducks with such bright orange/yellow bills and feet, which, as they will hybridize with lots of other duck species, can be useful for telling if a particular "weird duck" has Mallard ancestry. Male Mallards' curly tail feathers are also unique. Immature birds growing into their adult plumage with be dully-colored overall and look like the 4th photo.

Ducks fly with their necks straight out and rapid, hurried wingbeats.

Sources and Credits

1. (c) Charles Lam, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://www.flickr.com/photos/49296659@N00/2693516589
2. (c) 5of7, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://www.flickr.com/photos/53936799@N05/5527341011/
3. (c) Cláudio Dias Timm, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.flickr.com/photos/cdtimm/7742719310/
4. (c) Mike Baird, some rights reserved (CC BY), http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikebaird/3708830916/
5. (c) Kyle Wagaman, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.flickr.com/photos/pittpanthersfan/5778810541/
6. (c) Mr. T in DC, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_t_in_dc/6852466934/
7. (c) sea-kangaroo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)

More Info

• iNaturalist NZ taxon page
• All About Birds-- The Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• Animal Diversity Web
• Atlas of Living Australia
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• BOLD Systems BIN search
• CalPhotos
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• Maryland Biodiversity Project
• NatureServe Explorer 2.0
• NBN Atlas
• VertNet
• Xeno-canto
• 日本のレッドデータ検索システム

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