Mallard (Anas Platyrhynchos)
One of the largest ducks, mallards range across the entire northern
hemisphere, and are probably the best known of all waterfowl, likely
to set down in migration on small pools in city parks. It has also been
widely domesticated or semidomesticated.
Its coloration makes identification easy, and the loud quack helps
identify it. The birds breed in prairie waterholes in Canada, the
Dakotas, Minnesota, and, to a minor extent, in other northern States.
They move with the great spring and fall migrations and, adjusting
easily to the presence of man, are likely to be seen in town or city.
Add the domesticated mallards that swim about in so many parks
and you have the most urbanized of the ducks that can still claim a
wild heritage. They are most abundant in the Mississippi Valley.