The Beautiful Mallard
by Robert Bales
Title
The Beautiful Mallard
Artist
Robert Bales
Medium
Photograph - Photo
Description
Found this beautiful drake while walking the dogs one morning.
The Mallard or Wild Duck (Anas platyrhynchos) is a dabbling duck which breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand and Australia. This duck belongs to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae.
The Mallard is widely distributed across the Northern and Southern Hemisphere, North America from southern and central Alaska to Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, and across Eurasia, from Iceland and southern Greenland and parts of Morocco (North Africa) in the west, Scandinavia to the north, and to Siberia, Japan, and China in the east, Australia and New Zealand in the Southern hemisphere.[12] It is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters farther south. For example, in North America it winters south to Mexico, but also regularly strays into Central America and the Caribbean between September and May.
The Mallard inhabits a wide range of habitat and climates, from Arctic Tundra to subtropical regions. It is found in both fresh- and salt-water wetlands, including parks, small ponds, rivers, lakes and estuaries, as well as shallow inlets and open sea within sight of the coastline. Water depths of less than 1 metre (3.3 ft) are preferred, birds avoiding areas more than a few metres deep. They are attracted to bodies of water with aquatic vegetation
The male birds (drakes) have a glossy green head and are grey on wings and belly, while the females have mainly brown-speckled plumage. Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are gregarious. This species is the ancestor of most breeds of domestic ducks
Uploaded
April 7th, 2014
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Comments (24)
Anita Faye
Robert, happy to feature your beautiful work on Poetic Poultry 1/12/2019! https://fineartamerica.com/groups/poetic-poultry-.html
Don Columbus
Congratulations Robert, your work is Featured in "A Birding Group - Wings" I invite you to place it in the group's "2019 Featured Image Archive" Discussion!! L/Tweet
William Tasker
Lovely and elegant capture, Robert. It was a pleasure to view this wonderful and named bird image that is now exhibited among the homepage features for the group, Wild Birds Of The World - A Nature Photography Group. L/F
Latha Gokuldas Panicker
A magnificent capture,Robert !!! The Mallard looks so lovely in blue waters !!! (F/L)
Mr Bennett Kent
Beautiful shot of this mallard. Lovely concentric rings and a great capture fo the delightful green iridescence...L/F/Tweet
Music of the Heart
This mallard is really beautiful. I love to see him surrounded with the ripples and his reflection. A charming work Robert!! L/F