October 14, 2025 • 55 mins
Hosts Dr. Mike Brasher and Chris Jennings dive into North America’s most populous waterfowl species in this episode. Brasher and Jennings expand the mallard conversation into its entire life cycle, preferred habitats, and even close relatives. This is the all-things mallard episode you’ve been waiting for.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
VO (01:41):
Can we do a mic check, please? Everybody, welcome back
to the Ducks Unlimited podcast.I'm your host, Chris Jennings.
I'm your host, doctor MikeBrasher. My name is John Gordon.
I'll be your host. And I'm yourhost, Katie Burke.
Welcome to the Ducks Unlimitedpodcast, the only podcast about
(02:03):
all things waterfowl. Fromhunting insights to science
based discussions about ducks,geese, and issues affecting
waterfowl and wetlandsconservation in North America,
we bring the resource to you.The DU podcast.
Chris Jennings (02:27):
On today's show, we are going to do another
species of waterfowl, and todayis the most popular duck in
North America, probably the mostpopulous duck in North America,
the mallard. Joining me today isdoctor Mike Brasher, my cohost.
Mike, how are you?
Mike Brasher (02:41):
I'm doing well, Chris. How are
Chris Jennings (02:43):
you doing today? Awesome. I am ready to talk
about the mallard. So, you know,just so everyone is so familiar
with the Mallard. So, you know,for when we first started
talking about doing these shows,it's one of those deals where
I'm like, man, I just don't knowif we can, you know, talk about
just the Mallard for forty fiveminutes or so.
But
Mike Brasher (02:59):
Yeah. I don't know if there's anything to say about
it.
Chris Jennings (03:01):
Yeah. Right. But then you walk in with a stack
full of notes, and so this isgonna be great. So, Mike, go
ahead and give us a quickintroduction to the mallard.
Just kind of a a real briefintro about the species, and
then we'll get into the weeds.
It is, as you say,
Mike Brasher (03:14):
the most populous duck in North America, actually
the most populous duck in theworld. It is a Northern
Hemisphere species, at leastoriginally. And one thing that
we'll I'll just say here, we'renot gonna get into all the the
taxonomic relatedness,phylogenetic relatedness of this
species. We actually had doctorPhil on an earlier episode
talking extensively about this,and this is this kind of his
(03:35):
area of expertise. So kinda goback to some of those episodes
if you wanna learn about thephylogeny of of the mallard, but
it is historically a northNorthern Hemisphere species
occurred across the NorthernHemisphere in North America and
Europe.
But then, of course, through avariety of introductions,
they're now pretty much found onevery continent except
Antarctica across the globe. So,yeah, we can get into harvest
(03:59):
statistics and where it rankedand all that kind of stuff, but
pretty much anything that we'regonna say about the mallard is
that it's gonna rank at the topin terms of how intensively it's
studied. It adds the basis formuch of what we know about
waterfowl ecology and habitatrelationships. It's just it has
been the star, you might say, ifwe wanna anthropomorphize here a
(04:22):
little bit, throughout thewaterfowl world and waterfowl
literature for many, manydecades and continues to be one
of the most popular and wellstudied duck species, bird
species, quite frankly, allacross the world.
Chris Jennings (04:35):
Yeah. And, you know, it's it's so common that,
you know, things that we doevery day, even like emojis for
iPhone, you know, if you puttype duck in there, it actually
generates a picture of amallard. So for any of our
listeners out there who are notaware of what that mallard looks
like, you know, just a just anFYI, it's that green headed
(04:55):
duck. I And know you mentionedyou didn't wanna get real
in-depth with this, but I'mgonna let you kinda share a
little bit about the taxonomy.
Mike Brasher (05:01):
Yeah. And and this kinda goes to this this well
studied group of birds kindacalled the mallard complex, the
mallard clade. And and, yeah,I'm not gonna get too deep into
it because quite frankly, I amnot a taxonomic expert. That's
where our good friend, PhilOvetsky, comes in comes in
handy. But here within NorthAmerica, we can certainly touch
(05:23):
on the most the most obviousones.
Mallard, you know, that's thethat's where we start. And
American black duck, closerelative to that. Mottleduck,
also close relative. Mexicanduck, it was recently recognized
as a unique species by theAmerican Ornithological Society.
And then if you go over to theHawaiian Hawaiian Islands, we
(05:45):
have the Hawaiian duck and thethe leisantile that are in that
Mallard complex, and then youkinda get overseas and pick up a
few others, four or five othersdepending on how you wanna look
at the taxonomy.
But I'll stay away from that forright now. We'll just kinda
stick to the those in NorthAmerica and over in Hawaii.
Chris Jennings (06:01):
Yeah. And we can get Phil back on at some point
to to maybe, you know, get evenmore in-depth than we already
have with the shows that you dida couple seasons back. You know?
And and one thing that youmentioned is it is worldwide. I
mean, the mallard is, you know,distribution wise.
It's pretty much everywhere. Andso, you know, let's talk about
their distribution and how it'sspecific to North America.
Mike Brasher (06:22):
When we talk about the distribution of this bird in
North America, I think the firstthing we have to do is
acknowledge that people aregonna see many, many mallards in
urban settings, and there's avariety of reasons why that that
is the case. I mean, they'rejust fundamentally very well
adapted to some of those urbanenvironments. They've just
exhibit tremendous flexibilityin their their diet, their
(06:46):
habitat needs, their nestingneeds. They can nest anywhere.
You can find them anywhere.
So a lot of the people that seeducks in urban environments are
gonna be looking at at mallards,and so just kinda keep that in
mind. We'll set those urbanenvironments aside right now
just accepting that you're gonnasee a lot of mallards in urban
environments. When we lookacross North America to their
(07:11):
primary breeding habitatswithin, let's say, just the free
ranging, the the more naturalsettings, the heart of their
breeding range is going to bethe prairie Pothole region of
The US and Canada. But, ofcourse, they breed all across
the Northern US and all acrossCanada into the Boreal Forest.
(07:31):
About the only place you won'tfind them is on the tundra.
They do nest in in the coastalplain Mhmm. In Alaska. They will
there's sizable populations ofmallards, breeding mallards in
California, Oregon, Washington,Interior, British Columbia, of
course, the Great Lakes States,all across the the Northeastern
(07:52):
US, and then and then intoEastern Canada as well. They are
widely distributed across acrossthe northern tier of North
America.
Chris Jennings (08:01):
And I'm sure that that's the reason for their
being their abundance too, isthey're, you know, really
prolific. Opportunistic isprobably the better word. You
know, they'll take advantage ofany type of habitat, you know,
for now granted they have, likeyou said, they have their
preferred in the PPR, thePrairie Pothole Region. But we
just had Fritz Reed on not toolong ago, and he was talking
(08:23):
about, you know, the largepercentage of mallards that are
actually raised in the Boreal.Yeah.
You know? And that's one thingthat I think, you know, maybe
our audience overlook sometimesthat, you know, those there's a
ton of mallards coming from upthere, up further north.
Mike Brasher (08:36):
Yeah. Depending on the year, like, during a a dry
year such as this 2021, the ifwe were to look at the total
estimated mallard breedingpopulation kind of in the East
in the Western US and Canada,about 70%, I would say somewhere
between 6080% of that mallardbreeding population is going to
(08:59):
be in the Prairie Pothole regionof The US and Canada. Maybe,
yeah, maybe more like 60 or 70.80 might be a little bit high
whenever you factor in thebreeding populations in
California, Oregon, andWashington. But yeah.
So that's it's the heart oftheir breeding range, and that
is why it's one of the reasonswhy it is so important for for
(09:21):
all of our conservation efforts.
Chris Jennings (09:22):
Absolutely. And, you know, you you kind of
flirted with this, you know, thebreeding breeding range here.
Let's let's get a little bitmore into kind of the ecology of
it because some people, evenlike you mentioned, people will
see, you know, or these urbanducks are probably what some
people see most more thananything. But we always get a
(09:42):
ton of questions about those.Just, hey, you know, how long
are they sitting on the nest?
How many eggs are there supposedto be? So let's kinda get into
that, like, just their actual,like, the functioning of their
nest, how the process works.Before we get in the actual
nest, you know, let's even talkabout and how you did your PhD
research.
Mike Brasher (10:01):
That would be my master's. Master's.
Chris Jennings (10:03):
Okay. You did that on mallard breeding
ecology, did you not?
Mike Brasher (10:07):
I did. Specifically male mallard
Chris Jennings (10:10):
breeding ecology. Yeah. So so what are
the what exactly how's where howdoes this process start and and
kinda let's go through thatprocess through the whole
breeding cycle.
Mike Brasher (10:19):
Well, so let's back up to fall. That's when
things really start gearing upin anticipation of breeding the
the subsequent spring. Mallards,in contrast to other species
that we've talked about, likeblue winged teal, mallards are a
species that will will pairfairly early. They will they are
seasonally monogamous, as werefer to them, which means they
(10:42):
form new pair bonds each year.But once they have formed those
pair bonds, the male and femalewill remain intact or will
remain together until the thefemale is far along in
incubation, or otherwise, one ofthe pair members dies for
whatever reason.
So seasonally monogamous, thosepair bonds begin to develop in
the fall somewhere by November,let's say by December, we're
(11:06):
probably looking at aboutseventy, eighty to 80% of the
mallards being mallard femalesbeing paired. Mallards, like
most species of ducks in NorthAmerica, exhibit a male biased
sex ratio, more males thanfemales in the population, which
means that there are gonna besome males that will not find a
(11:28):
mate. But, yeah, they they formtheir pair bonds in the winter,
and then once they travel backnorth to breed in the Prairies
or the Boreal Forest or whereverit may be, they will the hen
will find a suitable nest sitein some typically in some type
of upland area. They are uplandnesting ducks like most dabbling
(11:49):
ducks in North America. However,mallards, very flexible in their
nest site selection, they willthey will nest over water.
They can kinda construct alittle platform, actually, over
water out of grasses or emergentvegetation and build nest in in
those situations. They also nestfrequently in human provided,
(12:13):
human constructed structures.Nest tunnels would be
Chris Jennings (12:16):
the
Mike Brasher (12:16):
most common type of of nesting structure that
people would would find amallard, hen mallard nesting in,
and they are they just nest inpretty much every place that you
could imagine. Whenever you lookat some of the nesting studies
across the years and theyidentify preferred nest site or
or primary nest site selectionor however they characterize it,
(12:41):
a lot of times they will findmallards most often in odd
areas. They kinda describe themas odd areas, shrubby areas,
long fence line. Flower pots.Oh, there's been some of that
too.
We've found some in the thecrooks or crevices of trees. You
know? They're just they theywill nest pretty much anywhere
they find a site that they deemsuitable. That is, quite
(13:06):
frankly, to their advantage, andthat's in stark contrast to
other species like likepintails, which are almost nest
site specialists. And, ofcourse, there's a story behind
with pintails about how that issorta one of the things that's
causing their population, youknow, troubles.
But but, yeah, mallards arereadily adaptable in terms of
(13:27):
their nest site selection, andso the the hen establishes a
nest, creates a nest bowl, andon average, she will lay about
nine eggs. That contrast withanother species we've talked
about, again, blue wing teal,sort of the other end of one of
these spectrums. So mallards areabout you know, or a larger
(13:48):
duck, about two and a half tothree pounds. And and, yeah,
they will average clutch sizefor first nest is about nine
eggs. Now the other thing aboutthe nesting ecology of mallards
is they are the most prolific renester Mhmm.
Which means the re nesting isbasically the process by which
after one nest is destroyed, thehen will initiate a entirely new
(14:12):
nest. There's sometimes anywherefrom well, the the time between
nests varies, and it depends ona number of things. The stage at
which the nest is destroyed,whether it's early in laying if
a nest is destroyed when thefemale is just in the laying
process. A lot of times, shewill just pick up the very next
day and start a new nest, orsometimes she'll wait a day or
(14:33):
two. But once they get fartherinto incubation and if the nest
is destroyed, it may take a weekor ten days before they gear
back up for for nesting.
But anyway, mallards are one ofthe most prolific re nesting
species. They will they can nestup to re nest up to five times
during years when there'sabundant wetlands when, you
know, conditions are good. Nowin drought years, such as 2021,
(14:57):
it provides us an opportunity totalk about this and how it how
it affects their ecology.They're not going to re nest as
often simply because they'regonna assess the habitat
conditions. And in a droughtlandscape, they're gonna be able
to sense a and detect a shortageof wetlands and whatever kind of
calculus goes on in in the mindof a duck to make those
(15:18):
decisions.
It happens, and they willcurtail their re nesting quite a
bit during the years when thereare there are fewer wetlands.
So, yeah, that kinda gets us tothe to the clutch average clutch
size of nine. With each of thosere nests, the average clutch
size decreases. And and and thatthat rule that's a general rule
(15:42):
anyway. The later in thebreeding season that a nest in
it is initiated, the smaller theclutch size will be.
Average length of incubation fora mallard is somewhere around
twenty six, twenty eight days.
Chris Jennings (15:55):
What time of year are they typically getting
up there to start this process?Yeah.
Mike Brasher (15:58):
Good question. They well, what I can tell you
is whenever I was working on mymaster's research, we would
arrive in I would leave fromMississippi, and we would arrive
in Manitoba or Saskatchewan inlate March. K. So we would have
to be there on-site basicallybefore the ducks arrive.
Sometimes they would startarriving in very late March.
(16:22):
But most often, mallards aregonna be some of the first to
arrive. Mallards and pintailswill be among the first to
venture back north. They wannaget an early start on breeding,
and they will, yeah, typicallyget there in the in noticeable
numbers in the first first weekor April, and then they will
(16:45):
start nesting in mid April ifconditions are right.
Chris Jennings (16:48):
Yeah. And that, you know, I wanna I kinda wanted
to just go back real quickbefore we we move on into clutch
size, because I'm sure we'regonna get pretty detailed on
this. But you talked about, youknow, the the initial stages of
that breeding process, that fullbreeding cycle. That's something
that hunters, your averagehunter out there, is witnessing
(17:09):
throughout the season. It'ssomething that we point out a
lot when we talk about kind oftips and tactics deals because
you see these, you know, largeflocks of mallards early middle
of the season.
And then later in the season, asyou get into late December,
especially down here, you know,in the Mid South area and the
South, you you start seeingpairs. You know? You're not
(17:30):
seeing a flock of 20 or a flockof eight. You're seeing a a
drake and a hen. And that's thepart of this process that most
hunters have probably witnessedno matter where they're hunting.
You know, they they've probablyseen that. So I just wanted to
kinda point that out before wemove on to actual clutch size
and things like that. So so whatare these things doing the day
(17:51):
they pop out? The day they hopout of the egg, you know, you've
got, what, nine, possibly 10?
Mike Brasher (17:57):
Yeah. Nine or on average, nine, sometimes 10,
sometimes eight eggs. Mhmm. Thatwould be the terminal clutch
size. And, you know,hatchability, one of the
questions that that researchershave I mean, researchers have
have answered or asked questionsand collected data to answer
pretty much any type of questionyou can imagine.
(18:18):
One of the questions is, like,hatchability. What percentage of
the eggs in a nest will actuallyhatch or fertile? That that
percentage is pretty high. It'sjust kind of a a little tidbit.
Probably over ninety, ninetyfive percent are gonna be
fertile.
You know? So high hatchabilityis very rare that you it may
even be higher than ninety fivepercent, but it's very rare that
you find nests that go unhatchedin in most of your dabbling and
(18:44):
diving ducks, wood ducks, andother blackbelly or whistling
ducks and other cavity nestingspecies may be a little bit
different, when you have asituation where that nest is
being parasitized and you havemultiple females nesting in a in
a box, you know, you can getmassive clutch sizes, twenty and
(19:05):
thirty.
Chris Jennings (19:05):
Those are
Mike Brasher (19:05):
pretty rare. Those type yeah. They're they're rare,
but, well, it's not uncommon atall for for those cavity nesting
species to have more than, youknow, 10 or so eggs, and in some
cases, that's when you mightfind a number of eggs that go
unhatched. But when we'retalking about ground nesting
ducks, overwater nest, ordabbling and diving ducks that
(19:28):
nest in uplands or nest overwater, where their nests are
harder to find as a general ruleand that parasitism is lower,
with the exception of canvasbacton redheads. There's gonna
be all sorts of exceptions to
Chris Jennings (19:41):
this conversation.
Mike Brasher (19:44):
There are gonna be very few instances where the
eggs do not hatch. So you'regonna have nine or 10 ducklings
or or fewer if it's later in theseason that will hatch. And and
again, all ducks are all speciesof waterfowl are precocial,
meaning that those young ducks,geese, or swan are able to they
have down all across theirbodies, unlike the altricial
(20:07):
young from passerine birds or orother most of the other birds
that we're kinda familiar with,where they when they hatch, they
are they're naked. You know?They they do not have feathers.
That's that's in contrast to theprecocial birds, which do have
which are down covered. They arefully mobile. Their eyes are
(20:28):
open, and they are able toforage and move independently
without the aid of the parent.So upon hatching, those little
fuzzballs make their way to to awetland, and, you know, are
kinda guided or taken there bythe hen, and they They're
Chris Jennings (20:49):
all in way.
VO (20:50):
Try to
Mike Brasher (20:50):
catch bugs.
Chris Jennings (20:51):
Yeah. And, you know, and that's that's the
difficult part of, you know,this whole process is those
little ducklings are very, veryvulnerable to just about
everything out there. But onething that I had heard someone
talk about not too long ago washow vulnerable, and it might
have been you, but I don't wantto give you credit right now.
The how vulnerable those ducks,the days that they, you know,
(21:13):
the day that they come out ofthe egg, they're very vulnerable
to moisture and and weather.Like, if it gets really, really
cold in the spring, they couldthat can kill the whole clutch.
I mean, it can.
Mike Brasher (21:26):
Yes. The the once they hatch, the brood.
Absolutely. We go from a from aclutch to a clutch of eggs to a
brood of ducklings or goslings.And, yes, during those those
first few days, and I forgetexactly how many days, I wanna
say they, you know, they havethe ability to thermoregulate to
some small degree pretty quick,maybe within a day or two, but
but then it's not until they'remaybe a week or so old that may
(21:48):
be a little generous.
They may get there around fouror five days where they develop
a greater sense of thermalregulation, and they're able to
kinda they are a bit moreresilient to those kinda adverse
weather conditions. But duringthose first few days,
absolutely, the hen has to broodthem, basically meaning that
that at night or in otherwiseinclement weather conditions,
(22:11):
whether it be a snowstorm orrain, they will huddle under her
and find a place, a log or or adry area up in the vegetation,
and and try to stay out of theeyesight and detection of
predators, and she will protectthem from those elements by
getting them to kinda stuff upunderneath her feathers and
under her wings and pretty neatlittle deal. So, yes, she does
brood them for those first fewdays. But then once they once
(22:35):
they get to about a week or soof age, they they can do a a bit
better job independently ofthermoregulating. But
absolutely, exposure is a commonsource of mortality for for
ducklings.
Chris Jennings (22:48):
And and as we just kinda go through this
process, we're actually gonna,you know, follow right along
with our little plan here, butit's just we're actually just
following along with the the thelife cycle of a mallard, which
is cool.
VO (23:08):
Stay tuned to the Ducks Unlimited podcast, sponsored by
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Chris Jennings (25:06):
How many days does it take for the or months,
I guess, does it take for themto be able to fly?
Mike Brasher (25:12):
So for Mallards, from the time they hatch, it's
gonna require somewhere betweenforty to sixty days for them to
to, you know, to be fullyfeathered and and able to fly.
Actually, they can typically,sometimes they can fly a little
bit sooner than that. But but,yeah, about fifty days, I I'd
say, is probably a good averagetime to fledging after after
(25:34):
they hatch.
Chris Jennings (25:35):
And how long do they stay with the hen, with the
mother, I guess? As they getolder and grow and right before
they're kind of preparing formigration? You know, by by this
time in the life cycle, youknow, their their their job is
to prepare for migration andsurvive, obviously. But so how
(25:55):
long do they stay with theirmother?
Mike Brasher (25:58):
They will it's not uncommon. I'm thinking back to
whenever I was on up there inCanada doing some doing some of
my research. It's not uncommonto find ducklings that you would
think are able to fly that stillhave the the hen around. So
she'll I suspect there's somevariation around that. This is a
pretty specific question thatI'll I'll confess.
(26:19):
I don't know exactly, you know,what what controls the length of
time that a hen is going to staywith those ducklings. But once
they it wouldn't be uncommon tofind a hen with ducklings that
are right near flightcapability, but it also wouldn't
be uncommon for a hen to kindabugger off, you know, two weeks
(26:39):
prior to that. So there's theshe will the point is she's
gonna stay with them for quite awhile.
Chris Jennings (26:44):
What are these ducklings eating when they
finally do get to a wetland?What are they keying in on to to
grow?
Mike Brasher (26:50):
No. It's gonna be invertebrates of all all
different kind, whether they beaquatic invertebrates or little
flies and midges that areemerging from the wetland and
perching on the on vegetation.You've pretty much all of us
have seen photos or videos of alittle duckling jumping up out
of the water trying to grasp afly that's that's traveling
(27:11):
overhead or that's perched on aon a piece of vegetation. But,
yeah, it's it's pretty much allinvertebrates of various types
there, where they're trying toget those protein resources to
help them grow their muscle,their feathers, and then all the
other all the other tissue thatthey need to grow and grow grow
quickly.
Chris Jennings (27:29):
Yeah. And and that's when the like I
mentioned, the kind of thepressure's on. Yep. So we'll
kind of transition into that.You know, they're trying to put
on weight preparing for themigration.
This is not necessarily focusedspecifically on the ducklings in
general, but just the mallard.What are they doing as they're
preparing? This would be like, Iwould say, maybe late summer,
early fall. They're kindapreparing for that migration.
(27:52):
What's their focus at that time?
Mike Brasher (27:54):
Yeah. So I'll come at this from several different
angles. We'll talk about thedifferent the the different
sexes. So first, let's talkabout the male mallards a little
bit because we haven't spokenmuch about them, you know, once
we get there to the breedinggrounds. Like most so I I said
earlier that they're seasonallymonogamous.
The female in in ducks in inNorth America, we have what's
(28:18):
known as female biased parentalcare care. Pretty much the
female is the only sex thatcares for ducklings in in ducks
here. And so basically, whatthat means is that the male's
responsibility for any kind ofany kind of care of the
ducklings, I mean, it'snonexistent, but any their their
(28:41):
parental care responsibilitiesbegins to wane as the female
progresses into incubation. Andso what what my study actually
did was I had radio marked malesas well as the radio marked
female pair, and so I I knew ifthe hen was nesting, and then I
was tracking the male andactually collecting visual
observations of that male, andso one of the questions that we
(29:04):
were answering, trying toanswer, is this very one of what
are the at what point do themales depart the breeding
ground, either leave the femaleand go seek other breeding
opportunities, or completelyleave the the breeding site, the
breeding region, and go go aheadand start molting.
Chris Jennings (29:22):
Yeah. I just wanna point out that, you know,
most of the world just looks atducks, and but doctor Mike
Rasier collects visualobservations.
Mike Brasher (29:33):
Well, that's right. That's all we did.
Chris Jennings (29:34):
Collect visual observations. I was just
looking. You know, I'd look atthem.
Mike Brasher (29:39):
No. We observe and yes. That's right.
Chris Jennings (29:41):
That's perfect. No. That was that was cool. And
but, you know, in your yourstudies there, were you learning
that maybe that male hung out alittle longer than you
originally thought?
Mike Brasher (29:49):
We did. Our our study was that was probably one
of the takeaways that a lot oftimes now I read species
accounts of the mallard, andthey will a lot of times, you'll
find where they describe themthe the male departing or that
pair bond loosening once thefemale gets to incubation, one
or two days of incubation. WhatI actually found is that that
(30:12):
male, in most cases, the themale mate stuck around in
proximity to where that hen wasnesting well into incubation,
two to sometimes two and a half,three weeks into incubation,
which is a bit unusual or atleast unexpected relative to
what we had had been previouslyfound. And so I don't exactly
(30:32):
know if there was somethingdriving that. Maybe it was an
exceptionally wet year.
They had good wetlandconditions, and the male was
kinda gauging whether he thoughtthere was gonna be additional re
nest opportunities. So, again,what goes on, the calculus that
goes on in the mind of theseducks is a bit uncertain, but we
did find the males hangingaround and being available for
those re nest opportunities inpretty much every case. In any
(30:55):
of the at least for the males,the pairs for which we had that
male mate radio marked, I thinkthere may be only one or two
instances where we observed thefemale pairing or mating with a
male other than her originalmate for a subsequent re nest
opportunity, if that makessense. In every case of those re
(31:18):
nest opportunities, it was theoriginal male mate that she was
with, is basically what what wefound, which was pretty cool to
see that. So nevertheless,though, once they get about two
to three weeks of incubation,that male starts ranging a bit
more widely across, in in ourcase, the study area.
And and by widely, I'm talkingfive to 10 miles. Sometimes we'd
have to go to search for them.But then once she gets even
(31:39):
farther into incubation, andcertainly once she hatches her
clutch of eggs, the male isbuggering off, doing other
things, and pretty soon, a lotof those males depart the
breeding area and will end uptraveling to some more permanent
molting lakes where they willdrop their flight feathers and
go through the molt. And, yeah,so that's what what the males
(32:03):
do. And then females, they, ifthey're successful raising if
they're successful hatching aclutch, they, of course, do
transition into brood care, andit was not uncommon for females,
we think, to actually molt theirwing feathers at on the breeding
(32:26):
grounds where they have beenraising that brood.
Now, if if they nest earlyenough and or if their nest is
destroyed or repeated nest ordestroyed, then they will
eventually kinda give up and goon to some of these molting
lakes. But it's not uncommon atall, we don't think, for some of
those females to be droppingtheir flight feathers and
molting there in proximity to,you know, the area where they
(32:48):
actually nested. So that's allgonna be happening in late
summer, and then they Mallardsand some of the other ducks
species that don't migrate asearly as bluing teal, they will
transition to this this sort ofstaging period, as we refer to
it, where they are kinda hangingout, getting fat, replacing
their their flight feathers, andpreparing for that southward
(33:12):
migration whenever they feel theurge to
Chris Jennings (33:15):
do You know, is mallard one of those species
where the young of the yearquickly become, you know, that
within that same year, you know,are is a hen mallard going to be
expected to raise a root andnest that same year? Or is it
one of those species where it'slike two years old, it'll do it?
Mike Brasher (33:34):
Yeah. All dabbling ducks will nest or and are
capable of of breeding in theirfirst year
Chris Jennings (33:41):
First year.
Mike Brasher (33:41):
Okay. First year of life. And that basically
means the following spring. It'slike we're not talking about
them attaining flight and thenbeing able to breed within,
Chris Jennings (33:48):
you know,
Mike Brasher (33:49):
three months. Yeah. Yeah. I I just was not
sure. Spring.
Right? They do breed at one yearof age. Mallards, blue wings,
shovelers, pintails, blackducks, all those species are are
are that way. And in most of thediving ducks, there's there are
most of the diving ducks aregonna be the same way.
Chris Jennings (34:04):
And then, you know, let's let's talk about
migration. We're talking aboutwe got all the way up to
staging. And I think that's kindof the quintessential mallard
image in people's heads wouldbe, you know, these large flocks
of migrating mallards ormallards in the snow, you know,
something like that wherebecause they're they're actually
a really hardy bird.
Mike Brasher (34:24):
Apparently, mallards don't migrate anymore
according to social media.
Chris Jennings (34:27):
Here we go. Yeah. No. I mean, I think I
think that that that that's, youknow, not that specifically. But
I think one thing that makes theMallard so exceptional is the
fact that it can handle somepretty cold temperatures.
It can handle, you know, alittle bit of snow and a little
bit of ice and before they youknow, they're hardy enough that
(34:49):
they really try and stick itout. And so in that process, how
how much are they having to packon in that staging area to make
sure that they can make theflight? Because some of these
birds are wintering, you know,as far south as Louisiana, you
know, Arkansas, you know. Theseare, you know, Texas,
California, Southern California.I mean, that's out west.
(35:10):
But, you know, what are theydoing to pack on this much
weight? What kind of foods arethey eating? How are they how
are they approaching that thatnext stage in their life?
Mike Brasher (35:18):
You're starting to touch on a couple of a couple of
really intriguing questions andthat relate to the things that
we observe with regard toMallard migration. There's there
are it's almost as though therethere are some Mallards, as you
described, there will beMallards that will be in
Louisiana that will have alreadymigrated to Louisiana by by by
(35:39):
late October, maybe even earlierin some years, early early
November. And meanwhile, thereare still mallards left in this
hanging out in North Dakota.Which mallards are those? You
know, the ones that migrateearly, regardless of what
weather conditions are and howcold it gets, how early it gets
it gets cold, versus those thatreally hang out at northern
(36:03):
latitudes despite severe winterweather.
What causes those differences?We really don't know, and it's
actually a pretty intriguingquestion that I that I think is
gaining a little bit moreattention, or at least it's it's
it's been talked about Mhmm. Alot now as we as we are trying
to do a better job or trying tolearn more about the migration
(36:28):
dynamics of mallards and otherspecies as well. But but
certainly, mallards being ourone of our largest duck species,
our our largest dabbling duckspecies, it is able to pack on a
lot of fat. It it has a highlyflexible diet, It can basically
eat anything from invertebratesto to corn or rice or wheat or
(36:48):
peas, and that gives it ton ofoptions of fish Yeah.
Chris Jennings (36:54):
I was gonna
Mike Brasher (36:55):
peanuts, you know, corns, anything. It there's very
few things that Mallards willnot will not eat and cannot
derive some energetic or caloricvalue from. But during that that
staging period, they are tryingto pack on calories. They're
consuming, you know, carbs.That's what they're after.
(37:15):
And so that's gonna come in theform of peas, wheat, barley.
Those are the ones I'm missingsome. Well, corn on the
landscape as well. Rice, youknow, farther south in some of
those landscapes, but I'mthinking about up north. I'm
thinking about mainly, I'mthinking about Prairie Canada,
and there is some corn that'smaking its way into Prairie
Canada.
But traditionally, when youthink about large flocks of of
(37:38):
mallards that are out acrossthat landscape foraging
feverishly to try to pack onthat fat. We're talking about
peas, garbanzo beans Yeah. Youknow, wheat, barley, those are
gonna be some of the big ones.
Chris Jennings (37:50):
Yeah. So, you know, that migration, the big
jump, then they're coming downto the wintering areas. How does
their food change? Will thething the food resources change?
And and what what are theseducks doing once they're on the
wintering grounds?
Mike Brasher (38:03):
I I think it's probably fair to say that we
don't see noticeable changes inthe in, like, the the type of
nutrients that ducks, thatmallards are seeking until the
following spring. Mhmm. Duringfall, winter, and prior to
(38:23):
spring migration, it's reallycarbs Yeah. Seeds, acorns,
agricultural grains that theyare after. Now they have to
supplement that obviously withinvertebrates and other other
forms of of plant material toobtain their essential nutrient
(38:44):
minerals and nutrients just likewe all have to have a balanced
diet.
Mallards can't live on quotebread alone either. And by the
way, we should not feed bread tomallards even in those urban
settings. They'll be fine.They'll be fine people. They'll
survive.
We don't need to feed thembread. So, yeah, we don't see
changes to their diet untiluntil spring, and that, again,
(39:07):
relates to them kinda gearing upto gearing up for that breeding
season egg formation. Actually,now that I say that, and I kinda
listen to myself talk here, oneof the things that I'm leaving
out in terms of what they gothrough during winter is is
molt. They do go through a moltduring winter. Females will and
the males do to some extent, andso then they so as they're going
(39:30):
through that body molt, not awing molt, but a body molt, they
will have to acquire protein toreplace those feathers.
So do they do seek out proteinin the form of invertebrates at
that time of year as well. So Iwanna make sure I didn't kinda
goof up there and forget aboutthe molt that occurs during the
winter as well.
Chris Jennings (39:48):
Yeah. And and just to clarify that, you know,
the body molt is actually thebody feathers. Yes. And they
transition new feathers at thattime, and but they they can
still fly.
Mike Brasher (39:58):
Yes. Absolutely.
Chris Jennings (39:59):
And I I just wanted you to clarify that for
our audience that, you know,when you think of molt, the
first thing that especially mepops into my head is they go
flightless.
Mike Brasher (40:08):
Yeah. Right. No. This is a they drop their flight
feathers only once per year.They go through oh, I'm kinda
off guard here.
I'd have to stop and think aboutthis to get it correct. So I'm
just gonna say they go through acouple of body molts, a couple
of molts of their contourfeathers, their body feathers
each year, and males and femalesdiffer a little bit in the
(40:29):
timing of those of those molts,and so that's an episode that's
a conversation that we need tothink a little bit more about
and have someone on that canspeak to that, those different
stages of molt and how they varyamong species among species,
and, you know, there are somethat we there there's some
thought that even that mayberuddy ducks might go through a
(40:50):
second wing molt on their theirwintering ground. So anyway,
there's some interesting thingsto talk about with regard to
getting in into the details ofmolt when it happens, the
different types of molt and andso forth. But, yeah, the that's
why whenever you go out into awetland during the during the
winter and you see all thesefeathers on the water
Chris Jennings (41:08):
Yep.
Mike Brasher (41:08):
Well, they're going through that body molt
during during the winter, thefemales will be.
Chris Jennings (41:13):
And then, you know, at that time, you know, as
we get into fall and winter,that's when waterfowl hunters
are out there chasing thesebirds. And and being the most
abundant duck. Really, thesethings are making up a majority
of a lot of people's bags. And Ijust wanna say there are some
areas in the country that don'tharvest near as many mallards as
others. But what makes some ofthose states different from each
(41:37):
other as in, you know, WestVirginia is not gonna harvest
near as many mallards asArkansas, obviously.
But what is it about thathabitat use during the winning
area that really attractsmallards to these high abundant
states.
Mike Brasher (41:50):
So you you love to ask those what is it, why
questions, which puts me on theon the side of having to provide
a a good explanation. So let mejust say there's probably a
number of reasons behind this.Let me let me start by saying
that when we look across thefour flyways, mallards are most
abundant in the Mississippiflyway. And if you roll back the
(42:10):
hands of time, that's gonna berelated to And quite frankly, a
lot of the patterns that we seenow are gonna be a reflection of
the sort of longer termhistorical patterns of migration
and habitats and how they'veoccurred across the landscape.
So when we kinda back up ahundred years or so and look at
where the habitats, winteringhabitats occurred that we would
(42:33):
have expected mallards to use,the Lower Mississippi Valley,
the lower portion of theMississippi River Valley is that
was it.
You know, those floodedbottomland hardwoods, when the
White River, the Cache River,the Mississippi River got out of
its banks, flooded thosebottomland hardwood forests, and
made accessible all those acornsand other grasses and whatever,
(42:56):
all sorts of other foodresources that mallards would
just gobble up, that became theheart of, and and has remained
so, quite frankly, the the heartof the winter distribution of
mallards. Now, you can look tothe Gulf Coast Of Louisiana,
Texas, Texas Panhandle, thePlaya Lakes region, lots of
wetlands there. Pretty muchanywhere you find wetlands,
(43:18):
you're gonna find mallards, andyou're gonna find mallard
abundance is gonna be at aregional scale, kinda correlated
with at least the historicalabundance of those of that of
those wetlands. Out inCalifornia, a good chunk of the
mallards that they harvest inCentral Valley California are
gonna be locally produced.You've got mallards that will
will that are locally producedin the Great Lakes that make up
(43:41):
a good portion of their mallardharvest.
Same is gonna be the case on thein the Atlantic Flyway, the
Northeastern US, where you getyou get some mallard production.
Those birds disproportionatelycontribute, you know, like, a
percentage basis. If you look atthe birds produced in the
Northeastern US, the majority ofthose are gonna be harvested in
(44:02):
in some of those local states.Now they do continue to migrate
on farther southward, butthey're disproportionately
important to those areas wherethey are produced. So the
distribution of mallards isgoing to be a reflection
generally of the distribution ofthe habitats and the food
resources that they are after,and that really leads us to the
Mississippi Alluvial Valley asthe the stronghold.
Chris Jennings (44:26):
So And you have some harvest numbers too.
Mike Brasher (44:28):
Mean I do. I do. We can look at harvest, and it's
gonna reflect that samedistribution and abundance. And
so not surprisingly, about halfof the mallard harvest on
average occurs in theMississippi Flyway, and it's
probably it's been that way formany years and continues to be
that way. When you look acrossthe entire entire US, I don't
think these numbers here accountfor a harvest that occurs in
(44:50):
Canada.
Look across the entire US, onaverage, over the past twenty or
so years, we've had an averageharvest of about four and a half
million mallards. I think we'vehad a few years recently here
where the number's been lowerthan that. But but on average,
we're looking at four to fourand a half million mallards
harvested, and half of those aregonna come from the Mississippi
(45:11):
Flyway. About 20% of those ofthat is gonna come from the
Central Flyway. A 20 another 20%is gonna come from the Pacific
Flyway, including Alaska, andthen you get about 10% or so
from the Atlantic Flyway.
And if you look at theimportance of mallard in the
(45:31):
overall harvest of ducks, onaverage, they're gonna account
for about a third of total duckharvest.
Chris Jennings (45:38):
That's a lot.
Mike Brasher (45:39):
So it is. It one species accounts for about a
third of the total duck harvest.Now part of that is because that
we have it's a it's a robustpopulation size. If you look
continentally, you're probablylooking at a population size
breeding population sizesomewhere around ten, eleven,
12,000,000 on average, And thatmay be even higher in in some
(46:01):
years. And, yeah.
So it's it's an incrediblyabundant duck. It has we have,
you know, respectably high baglimits, at least during the
liberal seasons here over thepast twenty or so years for that
species, and it is a I mean,it's just a great duck to hunt.
The way it decoys, the way itresponds to calls, the way it
(46:24):
responds to decoys, at least if,you know and they don't always
respond to my calling or mydecoys, so I need to work on
that. So not all mallards arethe same, or maybe it's not all
hunters are the same. I'm notsure which is
Chris Jennings (46:35):
the case. Think there's something special to be
be said about, you know, it isit's ironic that that it is the
most abundant species and it isalso, you know, the the most
harvested species. Yet, it stillholds such a, you know, I guess,
a a high stature.
Mike Brasher (46:55):
That's right. It doesn't hunters. So the
appreciation isn't worn out,isn't eroded by its That's
right. By its abundance or byits popularity or the not
popularity. But, yeah, it's it'sjust it's commonness.
Chris Jennings (47:06):
Yeah. And there's something special about
that green head on blue skydays. You get that white
underbelly, the sun shining.It's it's something special
about the mallard. Yeah.
Before we get out of here, let'sdo quick rundown on just
conservation concerns.Obviously, with the abundance
and with the prolific lifestylethat these things live, kind of
(47:29):
pinpoint some some realconservation focus that that
Ducks Unlimited Science istaking a look at right now.
Mike Brasher (47:34):
What I need to do here first is talk about three
different breeding stocks ofmallards, because that's how we
think about some of ourconservation concerns. In North
America, mallards can besubdivided into three breeding
stocks. One is a Western stockof mallards that will include
mallards in Alaska, InteriorInterior British Columbia,
(47:58):
Washington, Oregon, andCalifornia. There's the
Midcontinent breeding stock ofmallards. That will include
mallards in the prairieprovinces of Canada, the
Northern the the prairies of TheUS, the Western Boreal Forest,
the Great Lakes states.
And then in the then there's theeastern stock of mallards,
(48:21):
eastern population of mallards,which is going to include
everything pretty much East OfEast Of The Great Lakes. Major
production areas will includethe Northeastern states down to
about Virginia. You're gonnafind a few birds south of there,
but Virginia is about as farsouth as you can find
appreciable numbers, at least inthose wild settings, and then
Eastern Canada as well. So thosethree stocks of mallards are how
(48:45):
we, in the waterfowl managementcommunity, manage mallard
populations. Western mallardshave been doing pretty good.
I don't have population numbersbroken down by by those
different stocks. What I can do,I think I can remember these
ballpark wise in terms of, like,the mallard average mallard
(49:07):
breeding population size acrossthose three stocks. If we for
the mallards in the AtlanticFlyway, Eastern mallards, I
think we're somewhere around oneto one and a half million on
average. If we look into theMidcontinent population, that's,
of course, the largestpopulation of of mallards there,
(49:27):
anywhere from, you know, nine tosix or 7,000,000, depending on
habitat conditions, whatever.But typically, you're looking at
around 9,000,000, at least herein recent years.
So with that western mallardstock, I think we're looking at
somewhere around a millionmallards, somewhere in that
neighborhood. Most of them arein that midcontinent. I may be a
little bit off on some of thosenumbers, but relatively
(49:48):
speaking, it's gonna be in theballpark. The Midcontinent
mallard population is the is thebig one. And so in terms of
conservation concerns, westernmallards are doing doing pretty
well.
Well, they're doing fine.There's no indication of any
issues with with theirpopulations right now. And then
in the Midcontinent population,no issues there. Like, there's
(50:10):
no no pressing, like, populationdecline that we can't
necessarily understand. Now ifyou wanna look more regionally
within that midcontinentpopulation, you can go to the
Great Lakes states.
Chris Jennings (50:20):
Mhmm.
Mike Brasher (50:20):
And there are some issues there, some concerns with
declining mallard populations inyou know, among that sort of
subset, that breeding subset.And we're actually involved in
some research now. MichiganState University is a partner in
this research using somesatellite transmitters to try to
get a handle on what's going onwith Great Lakes Mallards as a
(50:40):
subset of that Midcontinentpopulation, and then you get
into the Eastern Mallard, andthat's its entire kinda issue of
its own. We've seen alsopopulation declines over the
past ten or so years for easternmallards, and we began to touch
on that a little bit with PhilOvetsky a couple of years ago
when he was looking at thegenetics of what's actually
(51:01):
happening there with easternmallards. So declining
population size among easternmallards, as well as some really
intriguing genetic stuff of gamefarm mallards maybe, you know,
kinda becoming more prevalent inthat eastern mallard population,
(51:21):
and some there's also somequestions about differences in
productivity between mallardsnesting in The US versus
mallards nesting in Canada.
It's like we're seeing thesepopulation declines, what's
driving it? Is it harvest? Is itreproduction? And if it's and
then are there differences inreproduction between birds
(51:43):
produced in The or birdsbreeding in The US and birds
breeding in Canada? So, youknow, when we look at mallards,
the Great Lakes as well as theEastern mallard population are
the ones for which we do havesome concerns, some legitimate
questions, and we're trying toget at those through some
targeted science.
Now, in terms of overallconservation, like I said at the
(52:05):
outset, mallards have been thebasis for much of what we know
about habitat relationshipsbetween ducks and wetlands and
upland nesting areas. Now,through the years, we've studied
individual species and learned awhole host about or learned a
lot about those other species,but mallards continue to be a
(52:26):
really good proxy for kindawhat's going on with with those
areas, or at least for the thehabitat requirements, and the
type of work that we need to bedoing to maximize re
recruitment, and then breedingseason survival. And so that
they have helped shape in amajor way a lot of the
conservation efforts that wepursue up there in the prairies.
Chris Jennings (52:48):
No. That's awesome. And it's this has been
fantastic. I mean, we've youknow, like I said at the outset
of the show, I was concernedwe'd be able to get, you know,
this long, but we could probablygo even longer.
Mike Brasher (52:58):
I'll probably go back through here, and we'll
listen to it, I'll, you know,say, oh, well, shoot. We didn't
we didn't talk about that. Wedidn't talk about that.
Chris Jennings (53:03):
That's right.
Mike Brasher (53:04):
We could've said this, or maybe you might even
say, oh, Mike, you screwed thatup.
Chris Jennings (53:08):
Well, if that's the case, we'll do Mallard's
part two pretty soon. Mike, thishas been great. It's been
awesome. I hope our listenerslearned something today about
the Mallard, but thanks forjoining me.
Mike Brasher (53:17):
You bet, Chris. My my pleasure. I'd like
Chris Jennings (53:20):
to thank my cohost, doctor Mike Brasher, for
coming on the show and andtalking about Mallards with us
today. I'd like to thank ClayBaird, our producer, for putting
the show together and getting itout to you, and I'd like to
thank you, the listener, forjoining us on the DU podcast and
supporting wetlandsconservation.
VO (53:37):
Thank you for listening to this episode of the DU podcast.
Be sure to rate, review, andsubscribe to the show, and visit
www.ducks.org/dupodcast forresources based on today's
topics as well as access to moreepisodes. Opinions expressed by
guests do not necessarilyreflect those of Unlimited.
Until next time. Stay tuned tothe ducks.
(53:59):
Stay tuned to the ducks.
Can we do a mic check, please? Everybody, welcome back
to the Ducks Unlimited podcast.I'm your host, Chris Jennings.
I'm your host, doctor MikeBrasher. My name is John Gordon.
I'll be your host. And I'm yourhost, Katie Burke.
Welcome to the Ducks Unlimitedpodcast, the only podcast about
(02:03):
all things waterfowl. Fromhunting insights to science
based discussions about ducks,geese, and issues affecting
waterfowl and wetlandsconservation in North America,
we bring the resource to you.The DU podcast.
Chris Jennings (02:27):
On today's show, we are going to do another
species of waterfowl, and todayis the most popular duck in
North America, probably the mostpopulous duck in North America,
the mallard. Joining me today isdoctor Mike Brasher, my cohost.
Mike, how are you?
Mike Brasher (02:41):
I'm doing well, Chris. How are
Chris Jennings (02:43):
you doing today? Awesome. I am ready to talk
about the mallard. So, you know,just so everyone is so familiar
with the Mallard. So, you know,for when we first started
talking about doing these shows,it's one of those deals where
I'm like, man, I just don't knowif we can, you know, talk about
just the Mallard for forty fiveminutes or so.
But
Mike Brasher (02:59):
Yeah. I don't know if there's anything to say about
it.
Chris Jennings (03:01):
Yeah. Right. But then you walk in with a stack
full of notes, and so this isgonna be great. So, Mike, go
ahead and give us a quickintroduction to the mallard.
Just kind of a a real briefintro about the species, and
then we'll get into the weeds.
It is, as you say,
Mike Brasher (03:14):
the most populous duck in North America, actually
the most populous duck in theworld. It is a Northern
Hemisphere species, at leastoriginally. And one thing that
we'll I'll just say here, we'renot gonna get into all the the
taxonomic relatedness,phylogenetic relatedness of this
species. We actually had doctorPhil on an earlier episode
talking extensively about this,and this is this kind of his
(03:35):
area of expertise. So kinda goback to some of those episodes
if you wanna learn about thephylogeny of of the mallard, but
it is historically a northNorthern Hemisphere species
occurred across the NorthernHemisphere in North America and
Europe.
But then, of course, through avariety of introductions,
they're now pretty much found onevery continent except
Antarctica across the globe. So,yeah, we can get into harvest
(03:59):
statistics and where it rankedand all that kind of stuff, but
pretty much anything that we'regonna say about the mallard is
that it's gonna rank at the topin terms of how intensively it's
studied. It adds the basis formuch of what we know about
waterfowl ecology and habitatrelationships. It's just it has
been the star, you might say, ifwe wanna anthropomorphize here a
(04:22):
little bit, throughout thewaterfowl world and waterfowl
literature for many, manydecades and continues to be one
of the most popular and wellstudied duck species, bird
species, quite frankly, allacross the world.
Chris Jennings (04:35):
Yeah. And, you know, it's it's so common that,
you know, things that we doevery day, even like emojis for
iPhone, you know, if you puttype duck in there, it actually
generates a picture of amallard. So for any of our
listeners out there who are notaware of what that mallard looks
like, you know, just a just anFYI, it's that green headed
(04:55):
duck. I And know you mentionedyou didn't wanna get real
in-depth with this, but I'mgonna let you kinda share a
little bit about the taxonomy.
Mike Brasher (05:01):
Yeah. And and this kinda goes to this this well
studied group of birds kindacalled the mallard complex, the
mallard clade. And and, yeah,I'm not gonna get too deep into
it because quite frankly, I amnot a taxonomic expert. That's
where our good friend, PhilOvetsky, comes in comes in
handy. But here within NorthAmerica, we can certainly touch
(05:23):
on the most the most obviousones.
Mallard, you know, that's thethat's where we start. And
American black duck, closerelative to that. Mottleduck,
also close relative. Mexicanduck, it was recently recognized
as a unique species by theAmerican Ornithological Society.
And then if you go over to theHawaiian Hawaiian Islands, we
(05:45):
have the Hawaiian duck and thethe leisantile that are in that
Mallard complex, and then youkinda get overseas and pick up a
few others, four or five othersdepending on how you wanna look
at the taxonomy.
But I'll stay away from that forright now. We'll just kinda
stick to the those in NorthAmerica and over in Hawaii.
Chris Jennings (06:01):
Yeah. And we can get Phil back on at some point
to to maybe, you know, get evenmore in-depth than we already
have with the shows that you dida couple seasons back. You know?
And and one thing that youmentioned is it is worldwide. I
mean, the mallard is, you know,distribution wise.
It's pretty much everywhere. Andso, you know, let's talk about
their distribution and how it'sspecific to North America.
Mike Brasher (06:22):
When we talk about the distribution of this bird in
North America, I think the firstthing we have to do is
acknowledge that people aregonna see many, many mallards in
urban settings, and there's avariety of reasons why that that
is the case. I mean, they'rejust fundamentally very well
adapted to some of those urbanenvironments. They've just
exhibit tremendous flexibilityin their their diet, their
(06:46):
habitat needs, their nestingneeds. They can nest anywhere.
You can find them anywhere.
So a lot of the people that seeducks in urban environments are
gonna be looking at at mallards,and so just kinda keep that in
mind. We'll set those urbanenvironments aside right now
just accepting that you're gonnasee a lot of mallards in urban
environments. When we lookacross North America to their
(07:11):
primary breeding habitatswithin, let's say, just the free
ranging, the the more naturalsettings, the heart of their
breeding range is going to bethe prairie Pothole region of
The US and Canada. But, ofcourse, they breed all across
the Northern US and all acrossCanada into the Boreal Forest.
(07:31):
About the only place you won'tfind them is on the tundra.
They do nest in in the coastalplain Mhmm. In Alaska. They will
there's sizable populations ofmallards, breeding mallards in
California, Oregon, Washington,Interior, British Columbia, of
course, the Great Lakes States,all across the the Northeastern
(07:52):
US, and then and then intoEastern Canada as well. They are
widely distributed across acrossthe northern tier of North
America.
Chris Jennings (08:01):
And I'm sure that that's the reason for their
being their abundance too, isthey're, you know, really
prolific. Opportunistic isprobably the better word. You
know, they'll take advantage ofany type of habitat, you know,
for now granted they have, likeyou said, they have their
preferred in the PPR, thePrairie Pothole Region. But we
just had Fritz Reed on not toolong ago, and he was talking
(08:23):
about, you know, the largepercentage of mallards that are
actually raised in the Boreal.Yeah.
You know? And that's one thingthat I think, you know, maybe
our audience overlook sometimesthat, you know, those there's a
ton of mallards coming from upthere, up further north.
Mike Brasher (08:36):
Yeah. Depending on the year, like, during a a dry
year such as this 2021, the ifwe were to look at the total
estimated mallard breedingpopulation kind of in the East
in the Western US and Canada,about 70%, I would say somewhere
between 6080% of that mallardbreeding population is going to
(08:59):
be in the Prairie Pothole regionof The US and Canada. Maybe,
yeah, maybe more like 60 or 70.80 might be a little bit high
whenever you factor in thebreeding populations in
California, Oregon, andWashington. But yeah.
So that's it's the heart oftheir breeding range, and that
is why it's one of the reasonswhy it is so important for for
(09:21):
all of our conservation efforts.
Chris Jennings (09:22):
Absolutely. And, you know, you you kind of
flirted with this, you know, thebreeding breeding range here.
Let's let's get a little bitmore into kind of the ecology of
it because some people, evenlike you mentioned, people will
see, you know, or these urbanducks are probably what some
people see most more thananything. But we always get a
(09:42):
ton of questions about those.Just, hey, you know, how long
are they sitting on the nest?
How many eggs are there supposedto be? So let's kinda get into
that, like, just their actual,like, the functioning of their
nest, how the process works.Before we get in the actual
nest, you know, let's even talkabout and how you did your PhD
research.
Mike Brasher (10:01):
That would be my master's. Master's.
Chris Jennings (10:03):
Okay. You did that on mallard breeding
ecology, did you not?
Mike Brasher (10:07):
I did. Specifically male mallard
Chris Jennings (10:10):
breeding ecology. Yeah. So so what are
the what exactly how's where howdoes this process start and and
kinda let's go through thatprocess through the whole
breeding cycle.
Mike Brasher (10:19):
Well, so let's back up to fall. That's when
things really start gearing upin anticipation of breeding the
the subsequent spring. Mallards,in contrast to other species
that we've talked about, likeblue winged teal, mallards are a
species that will will pairfairly early. They will they are
seasonally monogamous, as werefer to them, which means they
(10:42):
form new pair bonds each year.But once they have formed those
pair bonds, the male and femalewill remain intact or will
remain together until the thefemale is far along in
incubation, or otherwise, one ofthe pair members dies for
whatever reason.
So seasonally monogamous, thosepair bonds begin to develop in
the fall somewhere by November,let's say by December, we're
(11:06):
probably looking at aboutseventy, eighty to 80% of the
mallards being mallard femalesbeing paired. Mallards, like
most species of ducks in NorthAmerica, exhibit a male biased
sex ratio, more males thanfemales in the population, which
means that there are gonna besome males that will not find a
(11:28):
mate. But, yeah, they they formtheir pair bonds in the winter,
and then once they travel backnorth to breed in the Prairies
or the Boreal Forest or whereverit may be, they will the hen
will find a suitable nest sitein some typically in some type
of upland area. They are uplandnesting ducks like most dabbling
(11:49):
ducks in North America. However,mallards, very flexible in their
nest site selection, they willthey will nest over water.
They can kinda construct alittle platform, actually, over
water out of grasses or emergentvegetation and build nest in in
those situations. They also nestfrequently in human provided,
(12:13):
human constructed structures.Nest tunnels would be
Chris Jennings (12:16):
the
Mike Brasher (12:16):
most common type of of nesting structure that
people would would find amallard, hen mallard nesting in,
and they are they just nest inpretty much every place that you
could imagine. Whenever you lookat some of the nesting studies
across the years and theyidentify preferred nest site or
or primary nest site selectionor however they characterize it,
(12:41):
a lot of times they will findmallards most often in odd
areas. They kinda describe themas odd areas, shrubby areas,
long fence line. Flower pots.Oh, there's been some of that
too.
We've found some in the thecrooks or crevices of trees. You
know? They're just they theywill nest pretty much anywhere
they find a site that they deemsuitable. That is, quite
(13:06):
frankly, to their advantage, andthat's in stark contrast to
other species like likepintails, which are almost nest
site specialists. And, ofcourse, there's a story behind
with pintails about how that issorta one of the things that's
causing their population, youknow, troubles.
But but, yeah, mallards arereadily adaptable in terms of
(13:27):
their nest site selection, andso the the hen establishes a
nest, creates a nest bowl, andon average, she will lay about
nine eggs. That contrast withanother species we've talked
about, again, blue wing teal,sort of the other end of one of
these spectrums. So mallards areabout you know, or a larger
(13:48):
duck, about two and a half tothree pounds. And and, yeah,
they will average clutch sizefor first nest is about nine
eggs. Now the other thing aboutthe nesting ecology of mallards
is they are the most prolific renester Mhmm.
Which means the re nesting isbasically the process by which
after one nest is destroyed, thehen will initiate a entirely new
(14:12):
nest. There's sometimes anywherefrom well, the the time between
nests varies, and it depends ona number of things. The stage at
which the nest is destroyed,whether it's early in laying if
a nest is destroyed when thefemale is just in the laying
process. A lot of times, shewill just pick up the very next
day and start a new nest, orsometimes she'll wait a day or
(14:33):
two. But once they get fartherinto incubation and if the nest
is destroyed, it may take a weekor ten days before they gear
back up for for nesting.
But anyway, mallards are one ofthe most prolific re nesting
species. They will they can nestup to re nest up to five times
during years when there'sabundant wetlands when, you
know, conditions are good. Nowin drought years, such as 2021,
(14:57):
it provides us an opportunity totalk about this and how it how
it affects their ecology.They're not going to re nest as
often simply because they'regonna assess the habitat
conditions. And in a droughtlandscape, they're gonna be able
to sense a and detect a shortageof wetlands and whatever kind of
calculus goes on in in the mindof a duck to make those
(15:18):
decisions.
It happens, and they willcurtail their re nesting quite a
bit during the years when thereare there are fewer wetlands.
So, yeah, that kinda gets us tothe to the clutch average clutch
size of nine. With each of thosere nests, the average clutch
size decreases. And and and thatthat rule that's a general rule
(15:42):
anyway. The later in thebreeding season that a nest in
it is initiated, the smaller theclutch size will be.
Average length of incubation fora mallard is somewhere around
twenty six, twenty eight days.
Chris Jennings (15:55):
What time of year are they typically getting
up there to start this process?Yeah.
Mike Brasher (15:58):
Good question. They well, what I can tell you
is whenever I was working on mymaster's research, we would
arrive in I would leave fromMississippi, and we would arrive
in Manitoba or Saskatchewan inlate March. K. So we would have
to be there on-site basicallybefore the ducks arrive.
Sometimes they would startarriving in very late March.
(16:22):
But most often, mallards aregonna be some of the first to
arrive. Mallards and pintailswill be among the first to
venture back north. They wannaget an early start on breeding,
and they will, yeah, typicallyget there in the in noticeable
numbers in the first first weekor April, and then they will
(16:45):
start nesting in mid April ifconditions are right.
Chris Jennings (16:48):
Yeah. And that, you know, I wanna I kinda wanted
to just go back real quickbefore we we move on into clutch
size, because I'm sure we'regonna get pretty detailed on
this. But you talked about, youknow, the the initial stages of
that breeding process, that fullbreeding cycle. That's something
that hunters, your averagehunter out there, is witnessing
(17:09):
throughout the season. It'ssomething that we point out a
lot when we talk about kind oftips and tactics deals because
you see these, you know, largeflocks of mallards early middle
of the season.
And then later in the season, asyou get into late December,
especially down here, you know,in the Mid South area and the
South, you you start seeingpairs. You know? You're not
(17:30):
seeing a flock of 20 or a flockof eight. You're seeing a a
drake and a hen. And that's thepart of this process that most
hunters have probably witnessedno matter where they're hunting.
You know, they they've probablyseen that. So I just wanted to
kinda point that out before wemove on to actual clutch size
and things like that. So so whatare these things doing the day
(17:51):
they pop out? The day they hopout of the egg, you know, you've
got, what, nine, possibly 10?
Mike Brasher (17:57):
Yeah. Nine or on average, nine, sometimes 10,
sometimes eight eggs. Mhmm. Thatwould be the terminal clutch
size. And, you know,hatchability, one of the
questions that that researchershave I mean, researchers have
have answered or asked questionsand collected data to answer
pretty much any type of questionyou can imagine.
(18:18):
One of the questions is, like,hatchability. What percentage of
the eggs in a nest will actuallyhatch or fertile? That that
percentage is pretty high. It'sjust kind of a a little tidbit.
Probably over ninety, ninetyfive percent are gonna be
fertile.
You know? So high hatchabilityis very rare that you it may
even be higher than ninety fivepercent, but it's very rare that
you find nests that go unhatchedin in most of your dabbling and
(18:44):
diving ducks, wood ducks, andother blackbelly or whistling
ducks and other cavity nestingspecies may be a little bit
different, when you have asituation where that nest is
being parasitized and you havemultiple females nesting in a in
a box, you know, you can getmassive clutch sizes, twenty and
(19:05):
thirty.
Chris Jennings (19:05):
Those are
Mike Brasher (19:05):
pretty rare. Those type yeah. They're they're rare,
but, well, it's not uncommon atall for for those cavity nesting
species to have more than, youknow, 10 or so eggs, and in some
cases, that's when you mightfind a number of eggs that go
unhatched. But when we'retalking about ground nesting
ducks, overwater nest, ordabbling and diving ducks that
(19:28):
nest in uplands or nest overwater, where their nests are
harder to find as a general ruleand that parasitism is lower,
with the exception of canvasbacton redheads. There's gonna
be all sorts of exceptions to
Chris Jennings (19:41):
this conversation.
Mike Brasher (19:44):
There are gonna be very few instances where the
eggs do not hatch. So you'regonna have nine or 10 ducklings
or or fewer if it's later in theseason that will hatch. And and
again, all ducks are all speciesof waterfowl are precocial,
meaning that those young ducks,geese, or swan are able to they
have down all across theirbodies, unlike the altricial
(20:07):
young from passerine birds or orother most of the other birds
that we're kinda familiar with,where they when they hatch, they
are they're naked. You know?They they do not have feathers.
That's that's in contrast to theprecocial birds, which do have
which are down covered. They arefully mobile. Their eyes are
(20:28):
open, and they are able toforage and move independently
without the aid of the parent.So upon hatching, those little
fuzzballs make their way to to awetland, and, you know, are
kinda guided or taken there bythe hen, and they They're
Chris Jennings (20:49):
all in way.
VO (20:50):
Try to
Mike Brasher (20:50):
catch bugs.
Chris Jennings (20:51):
Yeah. And, you know, and that's that's the
difficult part of, you know,this whole process is those
little ducklings are very, veryvulnerable to just about
everything out there. But onething that I had heard someone
talk about not too long ago washow vulnerable, and it might
have been you, but I don't wantto give you credit right now.
The how vulnerable those ducks,the days that they, you know,
(21:13):
the day that they come out ofthe egg, they're very vulnerable
to moisture and and weather.Like, if it gets really, really
cold in the spring, they couldthat can kill the whole clutch.
I mean, it can.
Mike Brasher (21:26):
Yes. The the once they hatch, the brood.
Absolutely. We go from a from aclutch to a clutch of eggs to a
brood of ducklings or goslings.And, yes, during those those
first few days, and I forgetexactly how many days, I wanna
say they, you know, they havethe ability to thermoregulate to
some small degree pretty quick,maybe within a day or two, but
but then it's not until they'remaybe a week or so old that may
(21:48):
be a little generous.
They may get there around fouror five days where they develop
a greater sense of thermalregulation, and they're able to
kinda they are a bit moreresilient to those kinda adverse
weather conditions. But duringthose first few days,
absolutely, the hen has to broodthem, basically meaning that
that at night or in otherwiseinclement weather conditions,
(22:11):
whether it be a snowstorm orrain, they will huddle under her
and find a place, a log or or adry area up in the vegetation,
and and try to stay out of theeyesight and detection of
predators, and she will protectthem from those elements by
getting them to kinda stuff upunderneath her feathers and
under her wings and pretty neatlittle deal. So, yes, she does
brood them for those first fewdays. But then once they once
(22:35):
they get to about a week or soof age, they they can do a a bit
better job independently ofthermoregulating. But
absolutely, exposure is a commonsource of mortality for for
ducklings.
Chris Jennings (22:48):
And and as we just kinda go through this
process, we're actually gonna,you know, follow right along
with our little plan here, butit's just we're actually just
following along with the the thelife cycle of a mallard, which
is cool.
VO (23:08):
Stay tuned to the Ducks Unlimited podcast, sponsored by
Purina Pro Plan and Bird DogWhiskey. After these messages.
Chris Jennings (25:06):
How many days does it take for the or months,
I guess, does it take for themto be able to fly?
Mike Brasher (25:12):
So for Mallards, from the time they hatch, it's
gonna require somewhere betweenforty to sixty days for them to
to, you know, to be fullyfeathered and and able to fly.
Actually, they can typically,sometimes they can fly a little
bit sooner than that. But but,yeah, about fifty days, I I'd
say, is probably a good averagetime to fledging after after
(25:34):
they hatch.
Chris Jennings (25:35):
And how long do they stay with the hen, with the
mother, I guess? As they getolder and grow and right before
they're kind of preparing formigration? You know, by by this
time in the life cycle, youknow, their their their job is
to prepare for migration andsurvive, obviously. But so how
(25:55):
long do they stay with theirmother?
Mike Brasher (25:58):
They will it's not uncommon. I'm thinking back to
whenever I was on up there inCanada doing some doing some of
my research. It's not uncommonto find ducklings that you would
think are able to fly that stillhave the the hen around. So
she'll I suspect there's somevariation around that. This is a
pretty specific question thatI'll I'll confess.
(26:19):
I don't know exactly, you know,what what controls the length of
time that a hen is going to staywith those ducklings. But once
they it wouldn't be uncommon tofind a hen with ducklings that
are right near flightcapability, but it also wouldn't
be uncommon for a hen to kindabugger off, you know, two weeks
(26:39):
prior to that. So there's theshe will the point is she's
gonna stay with them for quite awhile.
Chris Jennings (26:44):
What are these ducklings eating when they
finally do get to a wetland?What are they keying in on to to
grow?
Mike Brasher (26:50):
No. It's gonna be invertebrates of all all
different kind, whether they beaquatic invertebrates or little
flies and midges that areemerging from the wetland and
perching on the on vegetation.You've pretty much all of us
have seen photos or videos of alittle duckling jumping up out
of the water trying to grasp afly that's that's traveling
(27:11):
overhead or that's perched on aon a piece of vegetation. But,
yeah, it's it's pretty much allinvertebrates of various types
there, where they're trying toget those protein resources to
help them grow their muscle,their feathers, and then all the
other all the other tissue thatthey need to grow and grow grow
quickly.
Chris Jennings (27:29):
Yeah. And and that's when the like I
mentioned, the kind of thepressure's on. Yep. So we'll
kind of transition into that.You know, they're trying to put
on weight preparing for themigration.
This is not necessarily focusedspecifically on the ducklings in
general, but just the mallard.What are they doing as they're
preparing? This would be like, Iwould say, maybe late summer,
early fall. They're kindapreparing for that migration.
(27:52):
What's their focus at that time?
Mike Brasher (27:54):
Yeah. So I'll come at this from several different
angles. We'll talk about thedifferent the the different
sexes. So first, let's talkabout the male mallards a little
bit because we haven't spokenmuch about them, you know, once
we get there to the breedinggrounds. Like most so I I said
earlier that they're seasonallymonogamous.
The female in in ducks in inNorth America, we have what's
(28:18):
known as female biased parentalcare care. Pretty much the
female is the only sex thatcares for ducklings in in ducks
here. And so basically, whatthat means is that the male's
responsibility for any kind ofany kind of care of the
ducklings, I mean, it'snonexistent, but any their their
(28:41):
parental care responsibilitiesbegins to wane as the female
progresses into incubation. Andso what what my study actually
did was I had radio marked malesas well as the radio marked
female pair, and so I I knew ifthe hen was nesting, and then I
was tracking the male andactually collecting visual
observations of that male, andso one of the questions that we
(29:04):
were answering, trying toanswer, is this very one of what
are the at what point do themales depart the breeding
ground, either leave the femaleand go seek other breeding
opportunities, or completelyleave the the breeding site, the
breeding region, and go go aheadand start molting.
Chris Jennings (29:22):
Yeah. I just wanna point out that, you know,
most of the world just looks atducks, and but doctor Mike
Rasier collects visualobservations.
Mike Brasher (29:33):
Well, that's right. That's all we did.
Chris Jennings (29:34):
Collect visual observations. I was just
looking. You know, I'd look atthem.
Mike Brasher (29:39):
No. We observe and yes. That's right.
Chris Jennings (29:41):
That's perfect. No. That was that was cool. And
but, you know, in your yourstudies there, were you learning
that maybe that male hung out alittle longer than you
originally thought?
Mike Brasher (29:49):
We did. Our our study was that was probably one
of the takeaways that a lot oftimes now I read species
accounts of the mallard, andthey will a lot of times, you'll
find where they describe themthe the male departing or that
pair bond loosening once thefemale gets to incubation, one
or two days of incubation. WhatI actually found is that that
(30:12):
male, in most cases, the themale mate stuck around in
proximity to where that hen wasnesting well into incubation,
two to sometimes two and a half,three weeks into incubation,
which is a bit unusual or atleast unexpected relative to
what we had had been previouslyfound. And so I don't exactly
(30:32):
know if there was somethingdriving that. Maybe it was an
exceptionally wet year.
They had good wetlandconditions, and the male was
kinda gauging whether he thoughtthere was gonna be additional re
nest opportunities. So, again,what goes on, the calculus that
goes on in the mind of theseducks is a bit uncertain, but we
did find the males hangingaround and being available for
those re nest opportunities inpretty much every case. In any
(30:55):
of the at least for the males,the pairs for which we had that
male mate radio marked, I thinkthere may be only one or two
instances where we observed thefemale pairing or mating with a
male other than her originalmate for a subsequent re nest
opportunity, if that makessense. In every case of those re
(31:18):
nest opportunities, it was theoriginal male mate that she was
with, is basically what what wefound, which was pretty cool to
see that. So nevertheless,though, once they get about two
to three weeks of incubation,that male starts ranging a bit
more widely across, in in ourcase, the study area.
And and by widely, I'm talkingfive to 10 miles. Sometimes we'd
have to go to search for them.But then once she gets even
(31:39):
farther into incubation, andcertainly once she hatches her
clutch of eggs, the male isbuggering off, doing other
things, and pretty soon, a lotof those males depart the
breeding area and will end uptraveling to some more permanent
molting lakes where they willdrop their flight feathers and
go through the molt. And, yeah,so that's what what the males
(32:03):
do. And then females, they, ifthey're successful raising if
they're successful hatching aclutch, they, of course, do
transition into brood care, andit was not uncommon for females,
we think, to actually molt theirwing feathers at on the breeding
(32:26):
grounds where they have beenraising that brood.
Now, if if they nest earlyenough and or if their nest is
destroyed or repeated nest ordestroyed, then they will
eventually kinda give up and goon to some of these molting
lakes. But it's not uncommon atall, we don't think, for some of
those females to be droppingtheir flight feathers and
molting there in proximity to,you know, the area where they
(32:48):
actually nested. So that's allgonna be happening in late
summer, and then they Mallardsand some of the other ducks
species that don't migrate asearly as bluing teal, they will
transition to this this sort ofstaging period, as we refer to
it, where they are kinda hangingout, getting fat, replacing
their their flight feathers, andpreparing for that southward
(33:12):
migration whenever they feel theurge to
Chris Jennings (33:15):
do You know, is mallard one of those species
where the young of the yearquickly become, you know, that
within that same year, you know,are is a hen mallard going to be
expected to raise a root andnest that same year? Or is it
one of those species where it'slike two years old, it'll do it?
Mike Brasher (33:34):
Yeah. All dabbling ducks will nest or and are
capable of of breeding in theirfirst year
Chris Jennings (33:41):
First year.
Mike Brasher (33:41):
Okay. First year of life. And that basically
means the following spring. It'slike we're not talking about
them attaining flight and thenbeing able to breed within,
Chris Jennings (33:48):
you know,
Mike Brasher (33:49):
three months. Yeah. Yeah. I I just was not
sure. Spring.
Right? They do breed at one yearof age. Mallards, blue wings,
shovelers, pintails, blackducks, all those species are are
are that way. And in most of thediving ducks, there's there are
most of the diving ducks aregonna be the same way.
Chris Jennings (34:04):
And then, you know, let's let's talk about
migration. We're talking aboutwe got all the way up to
staging. And I think that's kindof the quintessential mallard
image in people's heads wouldbe, you know, these large flocks
of migrating mallards ormallards in the snow, you know,
something like that wherebecause they're they're actually
a really hardy bird.
Mike Brasher (34:24):
Apparently, mallards don't migrate anymore
according to social media.
Chris Jennings (34:27):
Here we go. Yeah. No. I mean, I think I
think that that that that's, youknow, not that specifically. But
I think one thing that makes theMallard so exceptional is the
fact that it can handle somepretty cold temperatures.
It can handle, you know, alittle bit of snow and a little
bit of ice and before they youknow, they're hardy enough that
(34:49):
they really try and stick itout. And so in that process, how
how much are they having to packon in that staging area to make
sure that they can make theflight? Because some of these
birds are wintering, you know,as far south as Louisiana, you
know, Arkansas, you know. Theseare, you know, Texas,
California, Southern California.I mean, that's out west.
(35:10):
But, you know, what are theydoing to pack on this much
weight? What kind of foods arethey eating? How are they how
are they approaching that thatnext stage in their life?
Mike Brasher (35:18):
You're starting to touch on a couple of a couple of
really intriguing questions andthat relate to the things that
we observe with regard toMallard migration. There's there
are it's almost as though therethere are some Mallards, as you
described, there will beMallards that will be in
Louisiana that will have alreadymigrated to Louisiana by by by
(35:39):
late October, maybe even earlierin some years, early early
November. And meanwhile, thereare still mallards left in this
hanging out in North Dakota.Which mallards are those? You
know, the ones that migrateearly, regardless of what
weather conditions are and howcold it gets, how early it gets
it gets cold, versus those thatreally hang out at northern
(36:03):
latitudes despite severe winterweather.
What causes those differences?We really don't know, and it's
actually a pretty intriguingquestion that I that I think is
gaining a little bit moreattention, or at least it's it's
it's been talked about Mhmm. Alot now as we as we are trying
to do a better job or trying tolearn more about the migration
(36:28):
dynamics of mallards and otherspecies as well. But but
certainly, mallards being ourone of our largest duck species,
our our largest dabbling duckspecies, it is able to pack on a
lot of fat. It it has a highlyflexible diet, It can basically
eat anything from invertebratesto to corn or rice or wheat or
(36:48):
peas, and that gives it ton ofoptions of fish Yeah.
Chris Jennings (36:54):
I was gonna
Mike Brasher (36:55):
peanuts, you know, corns, anything. It there's very
few things that Mallards willnot will not eat and cannot
derive some energetic or caloricvalue from. But during that that
staging period, they are tryingto pack on calories. They're
consuming, you know, carbs.That's what they're after.
(37:15):
And so that's gonna come in theform of peas, wheat, barley.
Those are the ones I'm missingsome. Well, corn on the
landscape as well. Rice, youknow, farther south in some of
those landscapes, but I'mthinking about up north. I'm
thinking about mainly, I'mthinking about Prairie Canada,
and there is some corn that'smaking its way into Prairie
Canada.
But traditionally, when youthink about large flocks of of
(37:38):
mallards that are out acrossthat landscape foraging
feverishly to try to pack onthat fat. We're talking about
peas, garbanzo beans Yeah. Youknow, wheat, barley, those are
gonna be some of the big ones.
Chris Jennings (37:50):
Yeah. So, you know, that migration, the big
jump, then they're coming downto the wintering areas. How does
their food change? Will thething the food resources change?
And and what what are theseducks doing once they're on the
wintering grounds?
Mike Brasher (38:03):
I I think it's probably fair to say that we
don't see noticeable changes inthe in, like, the the type of
nutrients that ducks, thatmallards are seeking until the
following spring. Mhmm. Duringfall, winter, and prior to
(38:23):
spring migration, it's reallycarbs Yeah. Seeds, acorns,
agricultural grains that theyare after. Now they have to
supplement that obviously withinvertebrates and other other
forms of of plant material toobtain their essential nutrient
(38:44):
minerals and nutrients just likewe all have to have a balanced
diet.
Mallards can't live on quotebread alone either. And by the
way, we should not feed bread tomallards even in those urban
settings. They'll be fine.They'll be fine people. They'll
survive.
We don't need to feed thembread. So, yeah, we don't see
changes to their diet untiluntil spring, and that, again,
(39:07):
relates to them kinda gearing upto gearing up for that breeding
season egg formation. Actually,now that I say that, and I kinda
listen to myself talk here, oneof the things that I'm leaving
out in terms of what they gothrough during winter is is
molt. They do go through a moltduring winter. Females will and
the males do to some extent, andso then they so as they're going
(39:30):
through that body molt, not awing molt, but a body molt, they
will have to acquire protein toreplace those feathers.
So do they do seek out proteinin the form of invertebrates at
that time of year as well. So Iwanna make sure I didn't kinda
goof up there and forget aboutthe molt that occurs during the
winter as well.
Chris Jennings (39:48):
Yeah. And and just to clarify that, you know,
the body molt is actually thebody feathers. Yes. And they
transition new feathers at thattime, and but they they can
still fly.
Mike Brasher (39:58):
Yes. Absolutely.
Chris Jennings (39:59):
And I I just wanted you to clarify that for
our audience that, you know,when you think of molt, the
first thing that especially mepops into my head is they go
flightless.
Mike Brasher (40:08):
Yeah. Right. No. This is a they drop their flight
feathers only once per year.They go through oh, I'm kinda
off guard here.
I'd have to stop and think aboutthis to get it correct. So I'm
just gonna say they go through acouple of body molts, a couple
of molts of their contourfeathers, their body feathers
each year, and males and femalesdiffer a little bit in the
(40:29):
timing of those of those molts,and so that's an episode that's
a conversation that we need tothink a little bit more about
and have someone on that canspeak to that, those different
stages of molt and how they varyamong species among species,
and, you know, there are somethat we there there's some
thought that even that mayberuddy ducks might go through a
(40:50):
second wing molt on their theirwintering ground. So anyway,
there's some interesting thingsto talk about with regard to
getting in into the details ofmolt when it happens, the
different types of molt and andso forth. But, yeah, the that's
why whenever you go out into awetland during the during the
winter and you see all thesefeathers on the water
Chris Jennings (41:08):
Yep.
Mike Brasher (41:08):
Well, they're going through that body molt
during during the winter, thefemales will be.
Chris Jennings (41:13):
And then, you know, at that time, you know, as
we get into fall and winter,that's when waterfowl hunters
are out there chasing thesebirds. And and being the most
abundant duck. Really, thesethings are making up a majority
of a lot of people's bags. And Ijust wanna say there are some
areas in the country that don'tharvest near as many mallards as
others. But what makes some ofthose states different from each
(41:37):
other as in, you know, WestVirginia is not gonna harvest
near as many mallards asArkansas, obviously.
But what is it about thathabitat use during the winning
area that really attractsmallards to these high abundant
states.
Mike Brasher (41:50):
So you you love to ask those what is it, why
questions, which puts me on theon the side of having to provide
a a good explanation. So let mejust say there's probably a
number of reasons behind this.Let me let me start by saying
that when we look across thefour flyways, mallards are most
abundant in the Mississippiflyway. And if you roll back the
(42:10):
hands of time, that's gonna berelated to And quite frankly, a
lot of the patterns that we seenow are gonna be a reflection of
the sort of longer termhistorical patterns of migration
and habitats and how they'veoccurred across the landscape.
So when we kinda back up ahundred years or so and look at
where the habitats, winteringhabitats occurred that we would
(42:33):
have expected mallards to use,the Lower Mississippi Valley,
the lower portion of theMississippi River Valley is that
was it.
You know, those floodedbottomland hardwoods, when the
White River, the Cache River,the Mississippi River got out of
its banks, flooded thosebottomland hardwood forests, and
made accessible all those acornsand other grasses and whatever,
(42:56):
all sorts of other foodresources that mallards would
just gobble up, that became theheart of, and and has remained
so, quite frankly, the the heartof the winter distribution of
mallards. Now, you can look tothe Gulf Coast Of Louisiana,
Texas, Texas Panhandle, thePlaya Lakes region, lots of
wetlands there. Pretty muchanywhere you find wetlands,
(43:18):
you're gonna find mallards, andyou're gonna find mallard
abundance is gonna be at aregional scale, kinda correlated
with at least the historicalabundance of those of that of
those wetlands. Out inCalifornia, a good chunk of the
mallards that they harvest inCentral Valley California are
gonna be locally produced.You've got mallards that will
will that are locally producedin the Great Lakes that make up
(43:41):
a good portion of their mallardharvest.
Same is gonna be the case on thein the Atlantic Flyway, the
Northeastern US, where you getyou get some mallard production.
Those birds disproportionatelycontribute, you know, like, a
percentage basis. If you look atthe birds produced in the
Northeastern US, the majority ofthose are gonna be harvested in
(44:02):
in some of those local states.Now they do continue to migrate
on farther southward, butthey're disproportionately
important to those areas wherethey are produced. So the
distribution of mallards isgoing to be a reflection
generally of the distribution ofthe habitats and the food
resources that they are after,and that really leads us to the
Mississippi Alluvial Valley asthe the stronghold.
Chris Jennings (44:26):
So And you have some harvest numbers too.
Mike Brasher (44:28):
Mean I do. I do. We can look at harvest, and it's
gonna reflect that samedistribution and abundance. And
so not surprisingly, about halfof the mallard harvest on
average occurs in theMississippi Flyway, and it's
probably it's been that way formany years and continues to be
that way. When you look acrossthe entire entire US, I don't
think these numbers here accountfor a harvest that occurs in
(44:50):
Canada.
Look across the entire US, onaverage, over the past twenty or
so years, we've had an averageharvest of about four and a half
million mallards. I think we'vehad a few years recently here
where the number's been lowerthan that. But but on average,
we're looking at four to fourand a half million mallards
harvested, and half of those aregonna come from the Mississippi
(45:11):
Flyway. About 20% of those ofthat is gonna come from the
Central Flyway. A 20 another 20%is gonna come from the Pacific
Flyway, including Alaska, andthen you get about 10% or so
from the Atlantic Flyway.
And if you look at theimportance of mallard in the
(45:31):
overall harvest of ducks, onaverage, they're gonna account
for about a third of total duckharvest.
Chris Jennings (45:38):
That's a lot.
Mike Brasher (45:39):
So it is. It one species accounts for about a
third of the total duck harvest.Now part of that is because that
we have it's a it's a robustpopulation size. If you look
continentally, you're probablylooking at a population size
breeding population sizesomewhere around ten, eleven,
12,000,000 on average, And thatmay be even higher in in some
(46:01):
years. And, yeah.
So it's it's an incrediblyabundant duck. It has we have,
you know, respectably high baglimits, at least during the
liberal seasons here over thepast twenty or so years for that
species, and it is a I mean,it's just a great duck to hunt.
The way it decoys, the way itresponds to calls, the way it
(46:24):
responds to decoys, at least if,you know and they don't always
respond to my calling or mydecoys, so I need to work on
that. So not all mallards arethe same, or maybe it's not all
hunters are the same. I'm notsure which is
Chris Jennings (46:35):
the case. Think there's something special to be
be said about, you know, it isit's ironic that that it is the
most abundant species and it isalso, you know, the the most
harvested species. Yet, it stillholds such a, you know, I guess,
a a high stature.
Mike Brasher (46:55):
That's right. It doesn't hunters. So the
appreciation isn't worn out,isn't eroded by its That's
right. By its abundance or byits popularity or the not
popularity. But, yeah, it's it'sjust it's commonness.
Chris Jennings (47:06):
Yeah. And there's something special about
that green head on blue skydays. You get that white
underbelly, the sun shining.It's it's something special
about the mallard. Yeah.
Before we get out of here, let'sdo quick rundown on just
conservation concerns.Obviously, with the abundance
and with the prolific lifestylethat these things live, kind of
(47:29):
pinpoint some some realconservation focus that that
Ducks Unlimited Science istaking a look at right now.
Mike Brasher (47:34):
What I need to do here first is talk about three
different breeding stocks ofmallards, because that's how we
think about some of ourconservation concerns. In North
America, mallards can besubdivided into three breeding
stocks. One is a Western stockof mallards that will include
mallards in Alaska, InteriorInterior British Columbia,
(47:58):
Washington, Oregon, andCalifornia. There's the
Midcontinent breeding stock ofmallards. That will include
mallards in the prairieprovinces of Canada, the
Northern the the prairies of TheUS, the Western Boreal Forest,
the Great Lakes states.
And then in the then there's theeastern stock of mallards,
(48:21):
eastern population of mallards,which is going to include
everything pretty much East OfEast Of The Great Lakes. Major
production areas will includethe Northeastern states down to
about Virginia. You're gonnafind a few birds south of there,
but Virginia is about as farsouth as you can find
appreciable numbers, at least inthose wild settings, and then
Eastern Canada as well. So thosethree stocks of mallards are how
(48:45):
we, in the waterfowl managementcommunity, manage mallard
populations. Western mallardshave been doing pretty good.
I don't have population numbersbroken down by by those
different stocks. What I can do,I think I can remember these
ballpark wise in terms of, like,the mallard average mallard
(49:07):
breeding population size acrossthose three stocks. If we for
the mallards in the AtlanticFlyway, Eastern mallards, I
think we're somewhere around oneto one and a half million on
average. If we look into theMidcontinent population, that's,
of course, the largestpopulation of of mallards there,
(49:27):
anywhere from, you know, nine tosix or 7,000,000, depending on
habitat conditions, whatever.But typically, you're looking at
around 9,000,000, at least herein recent years.
So with that western mallardstock, I think we're looking at
somewhere around a millionmallards, somewhere in that
neighborhood. Most of them arein that midcontinent. I may be a
little bit off on some of thosenumbers, but relatively
(49:48):
speaking, it's gonna be in theballpark. The Midcontinent
mallard population is the is thebig one. And so in terms of
conservation concerns, westernmallards are doing doing pretty
well.
Well, they're doing fine.There's no indication of any
issues with with theirpopulations right now. And then
in the Midcontinent population,no issues there. Like, there's
(50:10):
no no pressing, like, populationdecline that we can't
necessarily understand. Now ifyou wanna look more regionally
within that midcontinentpopulation, you can go to the
Great Lakes states.
Chris Jennings (50:20):
Mhmm.
Mike Brasher (50:20):
And there are some issues there, some concerns with
declining mallard populations inyou know, among that sort of
subset, that breeding subset.And we're actually involved in
some research now. MichiganState University is a partner in
this research using somesatellite transmitters to try to
get a handle on what's going onwith Great Lakes Mallards as a
(50:40):
subset of that Midcontinentpopulation, and then you get
into the Eastern Mallard, andthat's its entire kinda issue of
its own. We've seen alsopopulation declines over the
past ten or so years for easternmallards, and we began to touch
on that a little bit with PhilOvetsky a couple of years ago
when he was looking at thegenetics of what's actually
(51:01):
happening there with easternmallards. So declining
population size among easternmallards, as well as some really
intriguing genetic stuff of gamefarm mallards maybe, you know,
kinda becoming more prevalent inthat eastern mallard population,
(51:21):
and some there's also somequestions about differences in
productivity between mallardsnesting in The US versus
mallards nesting in Canada.
It's like we're seeing thesepopulation declines, what's
driving it? Is it harvest? Is itreproduction? And if it's and
then are there differences inreproduction between birds
(51:43):
produced in The or birdsbreeding in The US and birds
breeding in Canada? So, youknow, when we look at mallards,
the Great Lakes as well as theEastern mallard population are
the ones for which we do havesome concerns, some legitimate
questions, and we're trying toget at those through some
targeted science.
Now, in terms of overallconservation, like I said at the
(52:05):
outset, mallards have been thebasis for much of what we know
about habitat relationshipsbetween ducks and wetlands and
upland nesting areas. Now,through the years, we've studied
individual species and learned awhole host about or learned a
lot about those other species,but mallards continue to be a
(52:26):
really good proxy for kindawhat's going on with with those
areas, or at least for the thehabitat requirements, and the
type of work that we need to bedoing to maximize re
recruitment, and then breedingseason survival. And so that
they have helped shape in amajor way a lot of the
conservation efforts that wepursue up there in the prairies.
Chris Jennings (52:48):
No. That's awesome. And it's this has been
fantastic. I mean, we've youknow, like I said at the outset
of the show, I was concernedwe'd be able to get, you know,
this long, but we could probablygo even longer.
Mike Brasher (52:58):
I'll probably go back through here, and we'll
listen to it, I'll, you know,say, oh, well, shoot. We didn't
we didn't talk about that. Wedidn't talk about that.
Chris Jennings (53:03):
That's right.
Mike Brasher (53:04):
We could've said this, or maybe you might even
say, oh, Mike, you screwed thatup.
Chris Jennings (53:08):
Well, if that's the case, we'll do Mallard's
part two pretty soon. Mike, thishas been great. It's been
awesome. I hope our listenerslearned something today about
the Mallard, but thanks forjoining me.
Mike Brasher (53:17):
You bet, Chris. My my pleasure. I'd like
Chris Jennings (53:20):
to thank my cohost, doctor Mike Brasher, for
coming on the show and andtalking about Mallards with us
today. I'd like to thank ClayBaird, our producer, for putting
the show together and getting itout to you, and I'd like to
thank you, the listener, forjoining us on the DU podcast and
supporting wetlandsconservation.
VO (53:37):
Thank you for listening to this episode of the DU podcast.
Be sure to rate, review, andsubscribe to the show, and visit
www.ducks.org/dupodcast forresources based on today's
topics as well as access to moreepisodes. Opinions expressed by
guests do not necessarilyreflect those of Unlimited.
Until next time. Stay tuned tothe ducks.
(53:59):
Stay tuned to the ducks.
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