Mallard: Common but Beautiful

The drake Mallard Anas platyrhynuchos is well known to almost everyone who has been to a city park in most of the temperate zones of the world. He has the green head and curled up tail feathers we all recognize. Male Mallards are a big duck, and have come to be resident in many city parks, especially if humans feed them. They readily interbreed with domestic ducks and innumerable patterns of color are seen in these hybrids often known as "park ducks." The females are a drab brown, and utter the classic duck "quack."