Mallard Ducklings

We had one of the cutest yard birds visit our family’s backyard last week when a female Mallard brought her three Mallard ducklings to their stream. The mother duck was keeping a close watch over her ducklings, because this is the most dangerous part of their lives. They can’t fly or defend themselves, and there are many predators for them to avoid, including cats, dogs, large fish, snapping turtles, and minks. The main threat they faced in Ed & Grace’s yard was a bullfrog that lives in their stream.

Most backyard birds, especially our woodpeckers and songbirds, have altricial young, meaning they hatch from the egg blind, have very few feathers, and require a lot of effort just to lift their heads to beg for food. Mallard hatchlings are referred to as precocial – they hatch with a full coat of down feathers and are walking around the nest within a few hours of hatching. The morning after the nestlings hatch, the mother leads her young away from the nest, never to return. They all walk to a nearby body of water like a stream or pond. In extreme cases, “nearby” can be more than a mile.

After about a month, Mallard ducklings start to look a lot different as they grow contour feathers to cover their down. They still can’t fly until they’re about two months old. Unfortunately for Mallards, they are still a target for predators after reaching adulthood. Raptors like Great Horned Owls and Peregrine Falcons seek them out. During the nesting season, the females are also susceptible to mammals like raccoons, foxes, and minks, because of the time they spend sitting on the ground to incubate their eggs. That extra predation pressure on females means that you’ll actually see more males than females during the fall and winter. Being a mom can be a perilous job.