Mallard Duck (Anas Platyrhynchos)
A large dabbling duck with a yellowish or grey and orange bill, dark eyes, orange legs and feet, chestnut breast, and metallic blue speculum. Breeding plumage males have a glossy green head and neck, pale grey back and flanks, and blackish rump and undertail with curled black upper tail coverts; females are dull brown with buff edged body feathers and a dark eye-stripe on the face.
The New Zealand mallard population is derived from 17 small importations of gamefarm mallards from England between 1870 and 1930, and two later imports of birds and eggs from a gamefarm in Connecticut, USA. Acclimatisation Societies subsequently bred and released over 30,000 mallards throughout New Zealand until 1974, by which time the mallard had become the most common waterfowl in the country. Extensive hybridisation with the native grey duck followed soon after their initial release and the mallard competitively excluded grey ducks from most wetlands, especially those in and near urban environments and in pastoral landscapes. As a consequence of both their gamefarm origin and hybridisation, the plumages of New Zealand’s mallards are highly variable, especially the females, and males in breeding plumage are duller and less striking than wild northern hemisphere mallards.
Ref: NZ Birdsonline
A large dabbling duck with a yellowish or grey and orange bill, dark eyes, orange legs and feet, chestnut breast, and metallic blue speculum. Breeding plumage males have a glossy green head and neck, pale grey back and flanks, and blackish rump and undertail with curled black upper tail coverts; females are dull brown with buff edged body feathers and a dark eye-stripe on the face.
The New Zealand mallard population is derived from 17 small importations of gamefarm mallards from England between 1870 and 1930, and two later imports of birds and eggs from a gamefarm in Connecticut, USA. Acclimatisation Societies subsequently bred and released over 30,000 mallards throughout New Zealand until 1974, by which time the mallard had become the most common waterfowl in the country. Extensive hybridisation with the native grey duck followed soon after their initial release and the mallard competitively excluded grey ducks from most wetlands, especially those in and near urban environments and in pastoral landscapes. As a consequence of both their gamefarm origin and hybridisation, the plumages of New Zealand’s mallards are highly variable, especially the females, and males in breeding plumage are duller and less striking than wild northern hemisphere mallards.
Ref: NZ Birdsonline
Click on each picture to see a larger view >>>
(Below) The morning duck run. We used to live in Stillwater, Auckland, overlooking a large mangrove area. Every morning the ducks would collect at the edge of the mangroves and, when they were all together, would rush across the road en-masse to a large group of Oak Trees, where they would feed on whatever was on the ground. A little later, at another given moment, they would all fly back to the water. This happened every day, morning and late afternoon.
