Guide to Boreal Birds
Duck-like Birds Overview
Habitat destruction and widespread interbreeding between American Black Ducks and Mallards has resulted in recent years in a decrease of "pure" Blacks. Actually the bird is not black, but only appears so at a distance; it was formerly more aptly known as the "Dusky Duck."
Description
19-22" (48-56 cm). Sooty brown with paler head and conspicuous white wing linings and violet speculum; olive or dull yellow bill. Sexes similar. Female Mallard paler and sandier, with bill mottled with orange and black, and whitish tail feathers.
Voice
Typical duck quack.
Nesting
9-12 greenish-buff eggs in a ground nest of feathers and down.
Habitat
Marshes, lakes, streams, coastal mudflats, and estuaries.
Range/Migration
Breeds in eastern and central North America, from Manitoba and Labrador to Texas and Florida. Winters from southern Minnesota and Nova Scotia south to southern Texas and central Florida.