Confused about these mallards

[Canadageeselover88]

This lake I go to has a bunch of female mallards? I think thats the name of them. I don't know to much about the wild ducks but they are all the brownish ones. Well, this one duck has 2 baby ducklings which seem to be alone now because I can't find the mother, she was leading them around for the longest time but a couple days ago I noticed she wasn't acting right and kept going in the bushes by the lake. Now I don't know where she is or what happened to her. The ducklings seem to be on their own with some of the other female ducks and the other ducks seem to attack them also. I'm not sure if that's normal or not. And are the mallard green heads molting? I have not seen any and they don't stay with the mother duck and the ducklings? The ducks seem so confusing.

 

[PirateGirl]

I believe since breeding season has mostly passed that the males may be beginning their eclipse molt so they will lose much of their green color and look much the same as the females.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

This lake I go to has a bunch of female mallards? I think thats the name of them. I don't know to much about the wild ducks but they are all the brownish ones. Well, this one duck has 2 baby ducklings which seem to be alone now because I can't find the mother, she was leading them around for the longest time but a couple days ago I noticed she wasn't acting right and kept going in the bushes by the lake. Now I don't know where she is or what happened to her. The ducklings seem to be on their own with some of the other female ducks and the other ducks seem to attack them also. I'm not sure if that's normal or not. And are the mallard green heads molting? I have not seen any and they don't stay with the mother duck and the ducklings? The ducks seem so confusing.

Is there not a land, lake, park or game keeper you could report it to? I'm hoping the ducklings are old enough to be able to survive without their mother, if she has in fact died/gone - poor little babies

 

[Miss Lydia]

If very tiny they won't survive a wild life rehabber may pick them up.

 

[PirateGirl]

Like it or not, wild ducks and ducklings are part of the food chain. One reason wild animals tend to have many offspring is that often there are a few that don't survive. In order for the species to survive they have many offspring so the odds are more favorable they make it to adulthood and reproduce themselves. If a wild duck or duckling is eaten by a predator it is helping the survival of that species instead, be it fox, weasel, snapping turtle, etc. As animal lovers we want to see them all flourish and do not want to see suffering, but more often than not wild birds do not need to be saved by us. We would just be disrupting the order of things and interfering with the success of the predatorial species.

 

[sourland]

The mallards around here have been in eclipse plumage for months and are just now molting into nuptial plumage. The mother mallard may have been eaten or she may be setting on a late nest - it sometimes happens.

 

[Canadageeselover88]

They can lay eggs again? I'm just concerned because there's other ducks and I keep reading about them being able to kill the ducklings. And is it true that the male mallards abandon the mother and his ducklings?

 

[sourland]

Generally wild mallard hens only raise a second brood if something happens to the first, but the birds you are describing may be semi domesticated and normal wild behaviors may be changed. Other ducks, turtles, herons, otters, mink ----------- and the list goes on all kill ducklings. Generally in the wild male mallards leave the hens and join drake flocks while the hens are raising ducklings. In the environment that you describe drakes frequently form flocks that competitively breed and frequently drown hens.

 

[happy duck]

Hope the mom reterns.....

 

[Canadageeselover88]

Generally wild mallard hens only raise a second brood if something happens to the first, but the birds you are describing may be semi domesticated and normal wild behaviors may be changed. Other ducks, turtles, herons, otters, mink ----------- and the list goes on all kill ducklings. Generally in the wild male mallards leave the hens and join drake flocks while the hens are raising ducklings. In the environment that you describe drakes frequently form flocks that competitively breed and frequently drown hens.

The male mallards drown the females? That's crazy. Why do they do that? Those drakes seem mean lol and they don't stay together as family?