The Birders Report

The Ubiquitous Mallard

by Larry Jordan on September 13, 2011

Mallard Drake (Anas platyrhynchos) photos by Larry Jordan

The Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) is the most abundant duck species in North America¹. I mean, we see these ducks everywhere! But just because they are common (for some folks around the world) doesn’t mean they are not beautiful and deserved of our attention.

This is the worldwide distribution map for the Mallard.

Notice the Mallard drake pictured above (click on images for full sized photos). His characteristic iridescent green head, seen as bluish or purple in certain light, the white neck ring, yellow bill, orange legs and that curly black tail make him easy to identify.

The female is not quite as easy to identify, having similar characteristics to other female dabbling ducks, but she sports a bluish speculum with noticeable white borders on the leading and trailing edges, distinguishing her from any other species.

They usually begin nesting in March but I stumbled upon this female, well hidden, sitting on her eggs at the beginning of June. This is a typical ground nest for the Mallard, hidden among tall vegetation and grass.

Once she has completed laying her clutch, the female will incubate the normally 10 to 12 eggs for 26 to 29 days, covering them with down when away from the nest. The ducklings will all hatch within a 6 to 10 hour period, usually during the day¹.

It takes about 12 hours for the precocial duckling to dry and begin moving around the nest. They usually leave the nest the morning after they hatch, the hen vocalizing up to 200 times per minute¹ as she leads her brood to nearby water.

The ducklings stick close to mom as she is their only protection until they can fly at around two months of age. This mamma duck brought her brood onto the shore of Clear Lake when I was down there in May. There were a couple of drakes on that shore but she was in charge of the brood. Aren’t they cute?

The young ducks become independent when they begin to fly and make forays out of their natal marsh about three weeks after that. They will join adult flocks in the fall to migrate¹.

This past week I noticed a small group of Mallards swimming in a cove on the Sacramento River at Turtle Bay. They look to be juvenile ducks going through their molt into adult birds.

You can see that this young drake is beginning to attain the green feathering on his head, his breast feathers are mostly chestnut color but the central two rectrices of his tail are still straight, not yet showing the adult recurve.

This young female shows the plumage similar to the adult female but her bill is a solid yellow color with no hint of the dark spotted or saddled beak of the adult female.

Here is a close up of the young drake just beginning to get his characteristic green head feathers.

And a close-up of another drake showing how that iridescent head can look bluish or purple in the sunlight.

The Mallard is the most sought after and harvested duck in North America; in some years hunters harvest 20–25% of the autumn population, that harvest averaging over 4 million birds per year in the United States alone between 1979 and 1984¹.

Even taking these numbers into account, the Mallard population is considered stable. The concern is the use of lead ammunition by hunters and lead tackle by fishermen.

At least 75 wild bird species in the United States are poisoned by spent lead ammunition, including bald eagles, golden eagles, ravens and endangered California condors. Thousands of cranes, ducks, swans, loons, geese and other waterfowl ingest lead fishing sinkers lost in lakes and rivers each year, often with deadly consequences².

For more information on the Center for Biological Diversity’s “Get the Lead Out” campaign, go here. To see more great bird photos, check out World Bird Wednesday!

References: ¹Birds of North America Online, ²Center for Biological Diversity

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Court Approves Historic Agreement to Speed Endangered Species Act Protection for 757 Imperiled Species

by Larry Jordan on September 11, 2011

Black-footed Albatross (Phoebastria nigripes) unknown photographer

TUCSON, Ariz.— A federal judge today approved a landmark legal agreement between the Center for Biological Diversity and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service requiring the agency to make initial or final decisions on whether to add hundreds of imperiled plants and animals to the federal endangered species list by 2018. The court also approved an agreement with another conservation group that it had previously blocked based on legal opposition from the Center.

“The court’s approval today will allow this historic agreement to move forward, speeding protection for as many as 757 of America’s most imperiled species,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center. “The historic agreement gives species like the Pacific walrus, American wolverine and California golden trout a shot at survival.”

The Center wrote scientific listing petitions and/or filed lawsuits to protect the 757 species as part of its decade-long campaign to safeguard 1,000 of America’s most imperiled, least protected species. Spanning every taxonomic group, the species protected by the agreement include 26 birds, 31 mammals, 67 fish, 22 reptiles, 33 amphibians, 197 plants and 381 invertebrates.

“With approval of the agreement, species from across the nation will be protected,” said Greenwald. “Habitat destruction, climate change, invasive species and other factors are pushing species toward extinction in all 50 states, and this agreement will help turn the tide.”

The species in the agreement occur in all 50 states and several Pacific island territories. The top three states in the agreement are Alabama, Georgia and Florida, with 149, 121 and 115 species respectively. Hawaii has 70, Nevada 54, California 51, Washington 36, Arizona 31, Oregon 24, Texas 22 and New Mexico 18.

An interactive map and a full list of the 757 species broken down by state, taxonomy, name and schedule of protection are available here. To read the full story go here.

Without groups like the Center for Biological Diversity standing up for these endangered species we would surely lose hundreds of species to extinction every year. Please support the Center for Biological Diversity and spread the word to others.

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Audubon Birds – A Field Guide to North American Birds

by Larry Jordan on September 3, 2011

The Audubon Birds – A Field Guide to North American Birds App for iPhone, iPad or Droid is on sale now through Monday, September 5th for a mere $4.99 (regularly $14.99). I just downloaded it yesterday and I really like it! As you can see from the screen saves, it is loaded with great features. Above you can see the front page of the app and to the right, its main menu.

You can see there is the standard “search” by common name or you can choose browse by shape, family or name if you don’t know what you are looking at. But, you can also do an advanced search where you put in the “species likelihood by state (or province) and month.” Then you choose all or some of the birds shape, colors, habitat, locomotion, region, size, song call pattern, song call type, or wing shape, each with its own dropdown sub-menu! Wow, song call pattern? How cool is that?

If you choose “browse by shape” you go to a sub-menu of 14 choices which will take you to a list of those particular species. The “browse by family” gives you 75 choices which each take you to that family’s species list.

Once you identify your bird, that’s when the fun begins. You will see beautiful photographs of your bird and its range map. The descriptions of each bird include what the bird looks like, the sounds it makes, its habitat and range, as well as a discussion of the bird’s habits and behavior and its nesting habits. I like that! If you hit the “similar” tab, you are shown a list of similar species with their photos.

From the photo above, you can see that you are treated to several song and call recordings of each species as well as a description of their voice.

There are so many things that this guide does that, in my humble opinion, put it above all of the other iPhone apps I have tried. You can add your own content, keep a life list and pinpoint your own sightings. You can also take your own photos with your iPhone or Droid, if you have that version of the application.

If you go back to the top of this post and look at the first screen capture, you will see a button on the menu that says “All About Birds.” This is a quick reference that brings up a menu including, About this Guide, How to Bird, How to Identify Birds, Plumage and Molt, Parts of a Bird (which includes a diagram), Classification of Birds, Bird Families, Natural History of Birds, Endangered and Threatened Birds, Bird Conservation and a Glossary.

I wanted to get this post out in time for everyone to pick up this app for that unbelievably low price of $4.99 so I haven’t even had time to peruse all of its great features yet, but, from what I’ve been able to see, I give this Audubon Birds – A Field Guide to North American Birds iPhone App a huge thumbs up!

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California Quail Forming Coveys at 10000 Birds

by Larry Jordan on August 31, 2011

California Quail (Callipepla californica) Male photo by Larry Jordan

Don’t forget to check out my latest West Coast Beat Writer post over at 10000 Birds! It is packed with information on the California State Bird, the California Quail!

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