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Mallards often seem familar and somehow 'unwild', since they are related to many domestic ducks and resemble them closely. Nevertheless, wild mallards are found throughout much of the northern hemisphere. In many areas they are wary and skittish, but in parks they often become rather tame. The brightly-colored males have striking greenish heads and yellow bills, while the more subdued females (who have to remain inconspicuous while incubating eggs) are a cryptic mottled brown with black-marked orange-yellow bills. In flight, and sometimes at rest, both sexes sport brilliant metallic-blue patches (the 'speculum') on the secondaries. These birds were wintering in several locations in California (including the San Diego area, Palo Alto, Newport Back Bay and Bolsa Chica Wetlands in coastal Orange County, and the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge in the Central Valley), and at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. |
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