Ducky questions

mallard drake flying
mallard drake flying

Because they are such common and charismatic birds now found nearly worldwide, and many people enjoy seeing them and adopting them, at least in spirit, I frequently get questions about mallards (Anas platyrhynchos). What follows is a small collection of mallard questions and answers.

(click on photos and graphics to expand)

mallard duckling
mallard duckling

1. Can this mallard hen feed her young? There is a group of mallards in my back yard/pond. There is a female with a broken bill. It appears that she has a mate, but I worry. If she has eggs will she be able to feed her young?

Submitted by: Anne, Virginia, USA

Anne, I’m sorry to hear about the female mallard.  The good news is that mallard ducklings are able to feed themselves within 24 hours of hatching.  The only thing the mother duck does is lead them to places where they can find food. So my concern would be whether the mother can feed herself.  Does she seem to be doing that?

Anne’s response: “Yes, she can feed herself, the tip of her tongue sticks out to one side but otherwise she seems to be doing well.  I put cracked corn out every morning and I make sure that she has a little extra, which seems to be working, considering she looks like she has gotten a little bigger and is holding her own against the other ducks.”

Most wildlife managers strongly discourage the feeding of wild ducks, but it’s hard to argue with your compassionate impulse for this injured hen. I hope she continues to do well. And if she does nest in the spring, her ducklings should be fine.

mallard hen
mallard hen

2. How many females per male? What is the best ratio to keep mallards if you are wanting them to lay eggs for babies? In other words, how many females per male would you put together?

Submitted by: Steve, USA

Steve, thanks for your question.  Unfortunately, I’m not a duck expert, and I’ve never raised ducks.  My site is really interested in the behavior of wild ducks.  I would think that one male could probably take care of a lot of females, but you might want to check sites like this one:

mallard hen with turtles
mallard hen

3. How to protect a nest? Hi, I live on a lake and feed mallard ducks daily. Love ’em! There are three that return every day to be fed. I named them Peter, Paul and Mary. Mary built her current nest in the cover of several large plants directly under my front window. The only reason I knew she was there was because my dog “showed” me one day. I was devastated to come out of my home this morning and find several eggs broken and scattered all over my sidewalk and driveway. I was terrified that something happened to Mary too. Once I found her to be okay, my concern grew because my fear was that there was an animal that got to the nest. Sadly, the broken eggs revealed feathers and then my protective instinct kicked in. I know, and understand that this is how nature works, but I so want to protect Mary and what’s left of her nest. If it was another animal who got to the nest, now they know where they can find her again. Isn’t there something that can be done? According to your article, she leaves the nest once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Can I cover her and the nest at night so she is protected? What can I do?

Submitted by: Cookie, USA

Cookie, I’m sorry to hear about the trauma there.  Even when a predatory situation is perfectly natural, it can still be hard to witness, or to see the aftermath.  I try to remind myself that predators have babies to feed, too. But I wouldn’t blame you at all for trying to protect your friend Mary.  First, I have to ask, are you sure there are any eggs or ducklings left to save? I don’t know about mallards specifically, but female birds that are brooding will often continue to sit on the nest for a few days even after all the eggs have been stolen or destroyed.  Probably, the hormones that control the behavior take a little bit of time to subside.  So it’s possible that even if she’s still sitting, it’s too late to do anything to help.

The second thing I have to ask is, are you sure the predator wasn’t your own dog?  Dogs do like eggs, after all.  And as you said, your dog knew where the nest was.  Obviously, if there is any possibility that your dog is the predator, the simple answer is to keep your dog away from the nest.  But assuming it was not your dog, I don’t know that there’s much you could do.  Most of the typical duck nest predators – such as raccoons, coyotes, foxes – would be pretty hard to keep out in any way that didn’t imprison the hen.  If you tried to put a fence around the nest, it would have to be pretty high to keep a fox out, and raccoons can climb over almost anything.  I guess you could try a heavy covered wooden box, but that might just stress the hen to an extreme.

I’m afraid I don’t have a good solution.  The only good news I can offer is that nest predation is a common occurrence and when a nest has been destroyed, mallard hens usually start over, typically within a week. Hopefully, Mary will try again and she’ll have better luck.

mallard tipped up
mallard feeding

4. Are mallard drakes the worst creatures in the world? I was at a lake and was upset to see a female duck surrounded by 7-9 male ducks pecking her and nearly drowning her. She was so tired and was shaking in shock. My family told me not to be silly, it was just nature. But I am worried that she didn’t survive. Why do the males make such horrible attacks?

Submitted by: Karen, UK

Karen, I sympathize with your distress. It is pretty traumatic to watch, to be sure.  I wrote about why this happens in ducks at  I’m not really sure I have much to add to that explanation.

However, it is important to remember that some of what we see is “unnatural” behavior that occurs in parks that have an overabundance of mallards. And I read an article recently about a study of the “divorce rate” in birds.  This is the rate at which mated pairs separate and pair up with new mates. Here’s a quote from that article: “Ducks do better than humans. Human marriages (American ones) fail at a rate of roughly 40 percent … Mallard marriages are 91 percent successful.”

So oddly enough, mallard matings in the wild are more stable than those of people.  Not sure how much consolation that is, but that’s all I’ve got.

mallard pair
mallard pair

5. Are mallard drakes the most loyal widowers in the world? A mallard drake has remained by his dead mate for the last five days. Initially I thought I would bury her when he left … perhaps I should just do it? She is beside my pond and attracting flies.

Submitted by: Sarah, UK

Sarah, awww, that’s sad … and a different side of the “horrible rapist mallard drake” picture.  I don’t really know how long the drake will stay there.  But probably not much longer, and the sooner the female is gone, the sooner he’ll move on.  I think burying it would be a nice thing to do.


Black, J.M., 1996, Partnership in Birds, the Study of Monogamy, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Drilling, N., Titman, R., and McKinney, F., The Birds of North America Online, CORNELL LAB OF ORNITHOLOGY and the AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGISTS’ UNION,

Cite this article as: Pelletier, TC. (December 23, 2014). Ducky questions Retrieved from on August 19, 2019.

19 thoughts on “Ducky questions”

  1. Nice selection of questions. I have watched mallards here on our pond for the last 10 years… Yes to damaged bills and lost legs and lives to snapping turtles. Yes to nest predation and sometimes hen predation too. The wood duck are safer nesting in our baffled wood duck box…. Michelle

  2. i had 5 penkin ducks two males and three females. a racoon got in somehow and killed two of my females and the one female who lived has a scratch but nothing serious. so my question is do i need to worry about anything in her eggs she is laying one a day but i know coons carry rabbies

  3. I have a mother duck sitting on her nest but I think the babies are dead. Would she continue to sit on dead babies?

  4. Ducks don’t generally sit on chicks. Once the eggs are hatched, the chicks are fairly mobile and they eat on their own. They may huddle together for warmth, but not necessarily at the nest. Have you seen dead chicks in the nest?

  5. Every year a pair of mallards wanders around our neighborhood and yard. There’s no signs of nesting, while other ducklings are being born. I’ve read that the female returns with a new male each year. Usually they’re gone by July 3rd. The male is very attentive. Are their ducks that don’t have young? Are there monogamous pairs? Might they have a nest during July? Thanks for any insight on their unusual schedule. Loretta

  6. I live on a golf course. A group of mallards has apparently kicked out a healthy male of their own. He is virtually all alone now. Why? It is late February.

  7. I live on a golf course. All but five of 42 mallard ducks flew away in February and this is mid March and they have not returned. It was a snowy winter and the ponds were frozen for awhile. Is this why they left and will they return?

  8. I live in a city and just this morning I saw a mother leading her ducklings across a street. My question is: will she come back or is the “leading them away from the nest” a one-time thing?

    What is normal? They leave and find water/food and stay there? Or would they usually come back to the nesting area daily until they are able to fly?

  9. Hi Bain,
    Usually, once the mallard hen leaves the nest with her ducklings, they don’t go back to it, unless it’s right next to the water, in which case, they may use it as a sleeping spot. But I would guess that if they crossed the street to go to water, they won’t be back.

  10. We have had a mother duck who laid 10 eggs near our front porch between some hydrangeas. This morning we saw that 4 eggs had been opened, and out in front of the nest. There are now 6 eggs left.
    The mother duck has NOT been back all day. Previously she was sitting on the eggs all day/night…with a few breaks.
    Our questions:
    Will she come back?
    Do we get rid of the eggs, so that “whatever” destroyed the four eggs….does not come back and finish the rest of the eggs.
    So sad…..

  11. I assume you’re saying that there hadn’t been enough time for the eggs to develop and hatch and that’s why you’re assuming that something ate them instead. If the mother is gone and not returning, her instincts are telling her it’s a lost cause. Personally, I’d leave the eggs and let whatever is eating them eat them. After all, that creature probably has babies to feed, too. And if it doesn’t eat those eggs, it might go looking for another duck nest.

  12. I have a pair of Mallards that come & lay on my lawn for hours. Eventually they come & eat bird seed & bread that I put under the bird feeder. Shouldn’t they have chicks by now (it is June 3) & need to care for them by a pond somewhere? Why are they spending hours on my lawn? I look out in the middle of the night & they are there. Sometimes it is just the female or just the male.

  13. We had four mallards in our backyard pond. Slowly they have died off or been killed and now there is only one left. Will he leave to find others to be with? Right now he just swims up and down the pond.

  14. Aww, that’s sad about the one ducking since I hear they get lonely if they’re alone but I hardly know anything about ducks for sure. The recent interest is due to seeing quack quacks in our neighbor’s yard three times now, so I’m thinking I may not be the only quack in the neighborhood if all goes well for the two love birds (I know, a cheesy pun). But either, exciting to see happen. We live in a suburb of Minneapolis, MN (close to a bike path and water so it’s not too horribly urban busy as it might be in other cases of city folk finding nesting ducks in their yard

  15. We have a mallard nesting in our garden. I’m worried because she got spooked one day and rammed herself up against our house hard. Since then it seems like she can’t quack. She opens her mouth a bunch like she is trying to make sounds but noting comes out.
    She is still very attentive to her nest and her eggs.
    Maybe I’m wrong to assume that tuning into the wall is the cause? Is it normal for hens to stop producing sounds??

  16. Hi Leslie, sorry for the delay in responding. Mallard hens usually don’t make the typical quack sound when on the nest. They are quieter, probably to keep from advertising their location. She’s probably fine. 🙂 Tom

  17. Hi,
    We have had Male and Female ducks in our garden for a few years. 4 years ago we built an extremley large pond and put a floating duck house in the middle. We had 13 ducklings last year and 18 ducklings this year good friday. On both occasions after about 2 hours of swimming around with the female and resting for a while back in the duck house the Female walks off with the ducklings and they never come back. Our mini lake is very safe from any predators. Why do they leave? We are baffled.

  18. Hi Paula and Mike, when you say “extremely large” pond, can you tell me the dimensions? It may be that they see it as a great place to nest and hatch, but not enough food for a whole bunch of ducklings. Tom

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