Appearance
Adult length: 20-25 inches, weight: drake(male)- 44 ounces, female- 38 ounces. In the summer,
the drake, or male, mallard is easily identified by his green head with white neck ring, brown
breast and pale grey belly. In the fall, he is colored mottled brown like the female. Both sexes
have a blue color patch, called a speculum, on their wings.
Food
Mallards are dabblers, meaning that they use their broad, flat bills to strain the water for particles
of plant and animal matter. They also graze on land and on the underwater plants. To reach
underwater plants, the mallard will tip itself under the water with its tail sticking up in the air. For
this reason, they prefer shallow waters. Included in their diet are grains, grasses, insects,
mollusks, crustaceans and small fish. | 
Female is Brown, Male has green head |
Habits and Breeding
The mallard prefers still, shallow inland waterways, but can also be found on open prairies far
from water. They have been seen at sea during their migration. It is believed that the mallard may have
been the first domesticated bird, even before chickens. There are 45 species of mallard and 58
subspecies--including almost every domesticated duck. It is very willing to live closely with
man.
The mallards pair off in August, but may not mate until the following spring. This pairing
usually only lasts for one season, but sometimes the partners will mate again another year. The
actual mating takes place on the water between September and March. Once the female begins
incubating the eggs, the male leaves her and will sometimes try to mate with other
females.
The nest is cup-shaped and lined with grass and feathers. Usually it is on the ground, but
sometimes the nest is in hollow trees or even the roofs of buildings or in rain gutters. They seem
to seek out unusual or unnatural nesting sites.
The female will lay between 10 and 12 eggs and incubate them for 23-29 days. Once they
hatch she takes the ducklings to water and watches over them. Only about ½ of those hatched
survive and large numbers are taken during hunting seasons but the large population and its
adaptability ensure its survival.
Wildlife Fact-file packet 15 and Peterson's Bird's Nests: United States east
of the Mississippi.
Appearance
21-24 inches. Coloration resembles female mallard, but has a yellow bill instead of an orange one.
Speculum is bluish purple with only the smallest white margin instead of the mallard's vivid blue
with wide white bands.
Food
A surface-feeding duck much like a mallard.
Habitat and Breeding
Found along with mallards on lakes and ponds, but also on salt and freshwater marshes and
estuaries.
They nest in hollows lined with twigs, grass and down on dry ground slightly above the level of
the water--sometimes in trees. 6-12 gray green eggs are laid and incubated by the female for
27-33 days. The ducklings are ready to follow their mother from the nest in only a few
days. | 
Black Duck |
Reader's Digest North American Wildlife, Peterson's Bird's Nests: United
States east of the Mississippi and Birds of America
Appearance
Adult length around 15 ½ inches. A small duck, mostly a speckled brown in color. Males have a
slate-blue head with a large white cresent between the eye and bill. They have a small white patch
on their sides and the wings have a pale blue inner wing. Bill is somewhat "dished" with a curve
to it. Female is overall mottled brown with a dark line through her eye and a slender-looking bill.
Male gives a high-pitched peeping call while the female quacks.
Food
Blue-winged Teals are dabbling ducks, with the feet placed like a mallard. | 
Blue-Winged Teal |
Habitat and Breeding
These ducks migrate to the southern American coast in the winter, but does not breed there. In
the spring it returns to the northern shallow freshwater areas to raise its young. It generally
arrives after most other ducks.
This duck also nests in a lined hollow near the water, which the female spends 2-7 days building.
The 9-12 buff-colored eggs are laid one a day and are incubated for 23-27 days by their mother,
starting after the last is laid.
Audubon Handbook: Eastern Birds, Peterson's Bird's Nests: United States
east of the Mississippi and Birds of America
Also known as Woodie, swamp duck, squealer or summer duck.
Appearance
Adult weight average 1.5 pounds. Adult length 19.5-20 inches.
Male breeding season plumage includes a brilliant crest with many shades of purple and green
with two parallel lines of white from the bill and eye to the tip of the crest. Fingers of black and
white separate the burgundy chest from the bronze sides. The Back and tail are purple-black and
the breast and belly are white. Non-breeding season males resemble the female with mottled
brown and a distintive white eye-ring as well as a white chin, throat and belly. | 
Male is colorful on left, Female brown on right |
Food
Fruits and nuts of woody plants such as beech, oak, and hickory; seeds of aquatic plants such as
burreed, wild rice, arrow-arum, spatterdock, and waterlily; and pondweed and
duckweed.
Habitat and Breeding
They arrive in Ohio in March and leave in November for wintering area in southeast US. Their
monogamous pairing takes place on the wintering grounds. They are adapted to forest wetlands,
especially swamps.
Females come to the same breeding ground year after year. Tree cavities are prefered nesting
sites, usually in oak, maple, elm and sycamore. The floor of the cavity is lined with woodchips
and sawdust. The ducks prefer a height of at least 30 feet off of the ground for the nest.
Clutch size is 5-16 dull white eggs which the female incubates for 30 days. The male stays near
until the incubation is nearly over then leaves to molt his flight feathers.
The chicks are called from the nest by their mother 24 hours after hatching. They leap from the
nest cavity and land unharmed to follow their mother to the water. The hen watches the young
for 6-8 weeks, then leaves to molt herself. The young fly at 60 days.
Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Publication 222
(778)
Appearance
Average length of adult is 18 inches. Merganzers have a thin, almost spike-like bill that has a
saw-edge on it. Both male and female Hooded Merganzers have fan-like crests, the male's being
more colorful, that can be raised or lowered. The male has a black head with a black-trimmed
white crest on the back of his head. His breast is white with two broad black bands that blend
into his black back. The underside is rusty-brown. The female is black-brown, her back being
darker, with an orange or rusty crest. Both have a white wing patch that can be seen in flight. In
flight, the merganzer holds its entire body--head, wings, tail--in the same horizontal
plane.
Food
They are diving ducks, which means that not only do they feed at the surface, but they also dive
down below to feed on the bottom.
Habitat and Breeding
They are found only in North Americas forest-edge lakes, rivers, ponds and marshes. Sometimes
they can be found around salt water. | 
Male Hooded Merganser
Female Hooded Merganser |
They nest in tree cavities, occasionally an old woodpecker hole, in wooded, swampy areas. The
female incubates her 8-12 white eggs for 29-37 days. If nesting holes are scarce, sometimes two
ducks will share a hole and mix their clutches.
Birds of America, Audubon Handbook: Eastern Birds, and Reader's Digest
Wildlife of North America.
|
