Mallards Courting Behavior

Mallards court in winter and since they are sometimes close to civilization it’s easy to observe. In this 3 minute video I took on a gray December 23rd you can see several displays performed by more than ten males around two females. Because of the bad weather the quality is not so great.

I took some stills from the movie (sorry for the bad quality) to explain the displays as far as I know them.

All that the female does in the video is bob her head up and down.

The Drakes shake their heads:

arch their necks:

lift their tail and lower the beak into the water to spit some  (usually towards the female):

and do the head-up-tail-up followed by swimming with their neck outstretched:

I tried to point out some displays within the movie by adding some text. I hope that helps. At the end of the movie a couple does the simultaneous pumping of the heads.

See more bird blogs from around the world on Bird Photography Weekly

~ by Natalie on December 27, 2010.