The mallard (or bloke duck) is the most widespread and the most common duck in the northern hemisphere.
The feather tunic
The male (woerd) and the female (duck) are both stocky, ruffled in nature, checkered as it were. The woerd possesses a greenish-glossy head and neck iridescent in the sun to a white ring (colvert). The forechest or throat region is brown. The flanks and belly are grayish white. Top and bottom of the rump are black and four curly feathers form two graceful black curls, adorning the gray-white with black tail. The plumage of the once is mottled yellow-brown and it possesses a light brow stripe and a rather dark eye stripe.
Based on the bill, you can distinguish young from old ducks during summer hunting. Mature ducks retain their greenish-yellow bill during the eclipse plumage. The ducks possess an olive-brown bill with irregular orange spots along the edges and sometimes at the bill tip. Old birds also have broader shoulder feathers than young birds whose bill is usually uniformly glossy brown.
Reproduction
The nesting site varies quite significantly from species to species. Three factors determine the nesting site:
1. humidity and possible submergence of the eggs;
2. camouflage and/or colony formation against predators;
3. protection from harmful rays of the sun
In the wild, birds must take all these factors into account. Some take into account the angle of incidence of sunlight when the sun is closest to the zenith at noon when building their nest. Other birds cover their eggs and still others, especially ground-breeding birds, use brown-speckled eggs to be camouflaged but also to block the dangerous ultraviolet rays.
The egg of the bloke duck is white but with a slight green sheen and has a glassy translucent shell. Therefore, the mallard duck must shield her eggs from sun rays very well. Hence, the duck lays its eggs in a sheltered nest in dense vegetation or itself is in the deep bowl of an old pollard willow.
Propagation
The bloke duck starts reproduction first, because it has the broadest food pattern and can absorb enough energy in an instant to start laying eggs. Normally this is around mid-February.
The courtship ritual is similar for all ground ducks: courting by the duck, turning in circles, the duck laying flat in the water and the duck kicking her. Then the duck starts to turn around again, half erect and then usually lets out a whistling sound. Both birds then brush their feathers.
kicking is preferably done in the water.
The duck usually lays 10 to 12 eggs. Incubation takes 28 days so that around April 1, the first downs can be expected. From 9 weeks, the young ducks are fully flight-ready. At a younger age they may rise above the water but will soon fall back in as the flight feathers have not yet hardened sufficiently.