Blue Band: Quebec

You’re a Mallard!

You were banded at the Léon Provencher marsh near Quebec City in early April while searching for bugs to eat. Your mate, a female or hen, had just laid 12 greenish-coloured eggs in a nest hidden in a grassy field nearby.

You left after nesting was underway, while your mate stayed to keep the eggs warm and care for the young when they hatched. You needed to find a large marsh to begin your moult. This is a time when you lose your old, worn feathers and grew new ones. You often hid from predators in the reeds during this time, because you couldn’t fly to escape them.

By late summer you joined with other mallards to migrate south and were spotted in Delaware, U.S.A. in early November.

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Fast Facts:

• a dabbling duck that eats at water surface or by tipping up
• eats seeds, plants and invertebrates
• ancestor of nearly all domestic duck breeds
• may nest 3 or 4 times in the spring if its nest is destroyed by a predator like a skunk or crow
• The most abundant and widely recognized duck in the world, this “puddle duck” will nest near any tiny body of water – including a backyard swimming pool!