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Here are some of our published duck reports.
Mallard ducks
The drakes (male mallard) and the hens
(female mallard) have different appearances. The drakes have an icy blue or
grassy green head and a shiny yellow beak while the hens have a muddy brown
colour covering her whole body but all mallard ducks have orange feet; their
weight is equal to a soccer ball.
Mallards live in wetlands and even
brackish water. Mallard ducks mostly stay in calm water as to their preference.
They only come up on land to lay their eggs they may lay them in urban places,
protected or even rooftops as they are known to breed in weird places.
Mallard ducks waddle around
searching for food around their habitat. Even though mallards are omnivores
they mainly eat plants only when they are young do they eat insects as a main
course.
Many mallard ducks survive as they
build nests in urban places such protected cavities and rooftops. But they’re
still very vulnerable as the drakes will follow a group of other drakes to hunt
for food while predators like American cows hunt for the family.
A drake will chase the hen and when the
hen was caught they will mate. All mallard ducks breed in female territories;
once they lay the eggs, after 5 days the drakes will leave. The hen will
incubate the eggs for 25-28 days. Once the eggs hatch the ducks can feed itself
and swim because all ducklings are precocial which means they are mature when
hatched. But they spend 40-50 days of their 20 years with the hen.
Mallard Ducks
The
mallard ducks has webbed feet, black eyes and a white ring around their neck.
The male mallard has a majestic green feathered head. Both the male and female
are about 50cm long and weigh about 1kg.
The
mallard duck is the most abundant duck in the world, as they are found in most
areas of the world with fresh water. The most common place to find ducks is
shallow freshwater wetlands.
Mallard
ducks are an omnivorous bird, which means they eat a combination of animals and
plants. 37.6% of their diet is made up of animals; the other 62.4% is plant.
Mallards usually eat seeds, grass, leaves, plant stalks, acorns and water bugs.
The
mallard duck does not have many natural predators, which is another reason why
they are the most plentiful duck in the world. Drakes fight one another for the
hens in the mating season. Humans pollute the ducks watery habitat and hurt
them. Cats and dogs can also harm mallards because they hunt and eat the
ducklings (although not enough to hurt the population) Right now the mallard
duck is not in any trouble but that could change if there is a large population
decrease.
Mallard ducks mate October to November and lay
their eggs from March to May. They lay about twelve eggs but are not very
protective mothers. Many hens lose 2-3 ducklings.
Mallard
Ducks
Mallard
ducks are extremely common ducks that live in streams and wetlands.
Mallard
ducks have mostly grey plumage with brilliant blue spots on its wings that you
can see when it flies. The body and the head of the male or drake is different
to the females. The head of the drake is green, the wings are grey and the body
is blue. The female, or hen, is grey everywhere apart from the spots on the
wings. The approximate length of the Mallard is 60cm with a wingspan of 90cm.
The average weight of the Mallard is 1kg.
The Mallard
ducks are omnivores which mean they eat plant matter and meat Mallards
basically eat everything within 5 meters of the riverbank which includes grass
and weeds. The meat part of their diet is constructed of worms, invertebrates
and amphibians. A third of their diet is meat and the other 2 thirds are made
of various pieces of vegetation.
Mallard
ducks live in and next to slow moving rivers, swampy wetlands and tranquil
lakes. They nest next to banks under small overhangs and in small holes.
Mallards like calm shallow waters with masses of food. The Mallard, will often
die because of their habitat being industrialised by humans.
Mallards
live everywhere where the weather is mild to hot. They were introduced by the English
for hunting. They are in the species anas and the sub-species platyrynchos.
The Mallards
were brought to New Zealand for sport where they interbred with other ducks so
the pure-breds population declined. There are still a lot of them though so
there status is not of the least concern. Now there population is declining
because they aren’t looking for their own food, reliant on humans for bread.
Mallard
ducks mate with a partner in late September to early October and lay eggs in
march to may in the northern hemisphere. After about a month the surviving
ducks hatch. Because the ducks lay 9-13 eggs usually about 4 eggs hatch because
the rest of them have died in the incubation period. Over the life time of a
female duck she should raise approximately 8 ducklings. The ducklings stay with
their mother for 2 months and then they leave to live on their own.
The Mallard
ducks are protected by laws apart from in May when your allowed to shoot 30
duck per day. Crows and Magpies find a source of nutrition in the eggs but they
aren’t without protection. The mother flaps her wings and quacks to draw
attention to herself rather than the eggs.
Mallards are
gregarious which means they usually live in groups. They become more tightly
packed in the air. They also swarm around humans as well because they see us
and think food.
The New Zealand Grey Duck
The New Zealand grey duck, or Anas Supersiliosa, has greenish brown legs and a stiff beak for braking nest material from reeds and grass. It has a dark brown body with a paler head and creamy white facial stripes. The NZ grey duck has a white under-wing and a green speculum which it displays during take-off and flight. It is 50-60 centimetres in length with the average being 55cm.
The NZ grey duck is commonly found in shallow wetlands, slow
streams or rivers, estuaries and large masses of water.
It’s wide diet is mostly made up of aquatic invertebrates or
plants, small insects and seeds, larvae, worms, caterpillars and occasionally
aquatic snails. Ducklings only eat aquatic invertebrates and develop a wider
diet when matured. Humans also feed the ducks bread but it isn’t good for them
because they become full but aren’t getting the nutrience they need.
The grey duck’s most common predator is humans because of duck-
shooting. Other predators are cats, dogs and cows. Duck-shooting is the main
cause for many dead ducks but something is being done to stop it.
Recently a duck-shooting law has been introduced stating that a hunting licence
must be obtained each season. Once a hunter has a licence 25 ducks are allowed
to be shot per day perhaps that is why grey ducks are becoming rarer.
New Zealand Grey Ducks
The New
Zealand Grey duck has a similar look to the female mallard. It is recognised by
its distinguishable black stripes through its eyes and a thick black stripe on
its head. It has dark brown feathers with tan edges. It has greenish brown legs
and feet. Both males and females are 55cm long. The female weighs about 1kg and
the male weigh about 1.1kg. It has a turquoise green speculum on its lower
wing, similar to blue/purple of the mallard, but this is blue on hybrids.
New Zealand
Grey ducks like to live in wetlands but not too deep. Pure strains are most
likely to be in remoter areas with native forest, large natural wetlands, in
the high country or back country. They can also live in streams, rivers and
large areas of water including stock dams on farms.
The New
Zealand Grey duck is an omnivore which means that they eat both plants and meat.
The New Zealand Grey Duck likes to eat aquatic vegetation. They like to eat
things like insects and invertebrates. They also like to eat small animals like
worms and caterpillars. The New Zealand Grey duck sometimes eats things like
seeds, plants and roots.
New Zealand
Grey ducks don’t have many predators. A predator is an animal that kills other
animals. The predators are humans and mallard ducks. The New Zealand Grey duck
tries to protect its ducklings by surrounding them. The humans kill the ducks
when shooting them. The ducks dive under the water so the hunter can’t shoot
them.
When
September comes breeding season starts. When a male duck and a female hen meet
they mate. Then the female lays the eggs. She normally lays four to nine eggs
per day. The male goes away to mate again once she has laid the first lot of
eggs. When the eggs start to hatch the female duck goes away from her nest to
find some food for her ducklings. After the eggs have hatched the ducklings
follow their mother around but after a month the ducklings leave their mum to
start the life cycle again.
The New Zealand Grey Duck
Appearance: Grey duck’s are grey and they usually
have black dots too. They’re usually
found in pairs and they tend to stay near ponds.
Diet: Grey Duck’s are
omnivores so they eat both, plants & meat.
The Grey Duck also
has a diet that eats lots of things like: aquatic snails, insects,
caterpillars, worms, larvae & seeds.
Predators & protection:
Humans and Mallard
ducks are predators of the Grey Duck. They are predators because they kill the
NZ Grey duck.
Breading & reproduction:
After the hen (a female grey duck) lays its eggs, five days after the
eggs hatch, the drake (a male grey duck) will go and remate.
NZ Grey Duck
The NZ Grey duck lives in and next to shallow wetlands and fresh water streams. They make their nests on the ground in extremely long vegetation so predators don’t gobble the eggs up. They also live in brackish or saline estuaries.NZ Grey ducks sub-species, Pacific black duck, lives in all sorts of places around Oceania. When it’s lost it can end up in all sorts of places; even in schools.
NZ Grey ducks eat aquatic vegetation and grasses that are close to the wetland borders and rivers. They also eat aquatic invertebrates such as insects, seeds, worms and larvae because it strengthens the egg shell. They use their strong bills to capture the aquatic vegetation and invertebrates lurking below. Humans feed them bread which causes a big problem because bread isn’t a part of a ducks diet. Bread doesn’t give ducks enough nutrients so the duck can’t catch as much invertebrates. Eventually the duck might die.
The NZ Grey duck’s main predator is a human. In May humans go duck shooting for these poor Grey ducks. The Maori also tried to hunt the ducks. NZ Grey ducks are protected every other month. Mallard ducks also try to compete with NZ Grey ducks for shelter.
NZ Grey ducks lay from 4 to even 9 eggs. The NZ Grey ducks pair up about mid July. They spend about 2-3 weeks finding a place to nest. Normally they stay near rushes at the end of a river or lake. After laying the drake only stays 5 days after the eggs have hatched. These ducks breed from September all the way to December. The parents incubate the precious egg for about 26-28 days. The mother leaves twice a day to feed themselves.
The
Mallard Duck
The
fully grown Mallard duck has the wing span of about three A4 sheets of paper, (81-98cm),
They are about 50–55cm long when they are fully grown and average weight of the
Mallard duck is 0.72-1.58kg,The hen is brown with dark brown markings with a
strait centre feather, The drake has a bright blue or green head with a purple
breast and white collar and his centre feather is curled.
The
habitats of the Mallard duck are in America, Europe, Asia and north Africa in
those countries they live in the wetlands – salt or fresh water Streams.
The
main predators of these ducks are humans, in the shooting season they are
allowed to kill twenty five a day, the shooting season is from May to June ,
birds are also predators to ducks because they steal and eat their eggs.
The
drake starts the reproducing by chasing the hen until she accepts. They pair
and they mate, the hen lays four – nine eggs one a day, five days after the hen
has hatched the eggs the drake loses interest and leaves the nest. By the time they are fully grown they will
have left the nest and be living on their own.
NZ Grey Duck
Appearance
The NZ Grey duck looks similar to the female mallard duck. It
has dark brown feathers with tanned edges with a cream head with a black strip
on the top. The female grey duck weighs about 1kg and the male 1.1kg.they are
approximately 50-55cm long. The male is called a drake and the female is called
a hen.
Diet
The NZ grey ducks diet is worms, caterpillars, insects and
much more. They also eat seeds, plants and roots.
Habitat
The NZ grey ducks habitat is mainly shallow wetlands, freshwater
streams, brackish waters or saline estuaries.
Predators and protection
The grey ducks predators are humans with duck shooting in
May. They were also hunted by Maori in the past but they are still mostly
protected.
Breeding and reproduction
The grey duck has its chicks from September to December and
they lay 4-9 eggs. The females leave the nest 2x a day to feed.
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