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Mallard
The Mallard is 56–65 cm long (of which the body makes up around two-thirds) has a wingspan of 81–98 cm and weighs 0.9–1.2 kg. The breeding male has a bright bottle- green head, black rear end and a yellowish orange (can also contain some red) bill tipped with black (as opposed to the black/orange bill in females). Mallard has a white collar which demarcates the head from the purple -tinged brown breast, grey brown wings , and a pale grey belly . The dark tail has white borders. The female Mallard is a mottled light brown and has buff cheeks, eyebrow, throat and neck with a darker crown and eye- stripe . Both the female and male mallards have distinct purple spectulum edged with white, prominent in flight or at rest. Upon hatching, the plumage coloring of the duckling is yellow on the underside and face (with streaks by the eyes ) and black on the backside (with some yellow spots) all the way to the top and back of the head.
The Mallard is widely distributed across the Northern 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 in the west , Scandinavia to the north, and to Siberia , Japan , and China in the east .It is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters farther south . Water depths of less than 1 m are preferred . Mallards avoid areas more than a few metres deep.
When the male molts, he ends up losing his distinctive green head of feathers, but still has the white collar ring and rusty-brown chest . Both males and females are unable to fly after molting until they re- grow them in time for the fall migration.The female has the louder and more distinctive " quack " than males. Male Mallards have more of a nasal quack that is much quieter. This noted, males and females together make a lot of noise. Mallards have become quite tolerant of humans . This can be seen by the number of Mallards living in urban areas, in much greater frequency than other ducks.
The population of the mallards is in Estonia 20 000-30 000 pairs , in Europe 3,3-5,1 million pairs.
Mallard is not an immediate threat to the survival of the species .