Today we have a panoply of DUCK photos by Emilio D’alise, whose notes and short descriptions are indented. You can enlarge these beautiful mallard pictures by clicking on them.
Mallard or wild duck (Anas platyrhynchos)
These mallards were all photographed in Monument, Colorado, on a pond behind the Public Library. There is a large population of ducks and geese that inhabit the pond nearly year-round, in part because people feed them.
Flapping:
Hens [JAC: note the difference in bill patterns, the hen’s “fingerprints”]:
Fantastic anantids! Thank you for sharing!
Great duck pictures! I love that first one. He looks like a bowling pin.
I see mallards flapping all the time, but I cannot get splendid pictures like these! I want to ask, though: Why do they flap like that? I see both males and females flapping, and I can see no obvious reason. It does not look like a mating display, and I cannot immediately find a clear answer on the web.
Understand, I’m not an expert, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express, so here’s my uninformed hypothesis (or three):
1) like humans, they occasionally stretch
2) they could be shedding water from their wing feathers following a dive
2a) . . . and replenishing the air trapped between the feathers.
3) diversionary tactic while they fart. Some don’t care . . .
https://disperser.files.wordpress.com/2019/04/20190328_dscn2754_2-mod-mod.jpg
Mallards! Thanks for the fix.
Good ol’ flatnose! 🙂
That Mallard looks about to utter a profundity after which he beats his chest.
Modern politicians…