January 14th: Mallard Day

Mallard day is celebrated in All Souls' college, Oxford on January 14. It commemorates the finding of a large mallard duck stuck in a drain while digging the foundations for the college in 1437. The celebrations include singing a special song dedicated to the duck.

1. Latin name: Anas platyrhynchos; "Mallard" comes from the old French word malart meaning "wild drake".
2. The female lays more than half her body weight in eggs in a clutch of 8–13 eggs, which are incubated for 27–28 days. The ducklings can swim as soon as they hatch, but they imprint on their mother, and so stay close to her while they learn about the best places to find food.
3. When adult mallards pair up with mates, one or more drakes usually find themselves left out, and they are randy little so and sos! The unpaired males are likely to force any female to mate with them if she appears to be alone, even if she already has a brood of ducklings with her. They will also gang rape female ducks of other species (with which they can produce fertile offspring). There have been observations of the males copulating with each other, and even with the corpses of dead ducks.
4. There is evidence that the Mallard was domesticated in ancient Egypt and its domestication may have pre-dated that of the chicken.
5. In Florida, it is illegal to keep a Mallard Duck as a pet. This is to prevent hybridisation with the native Mottled Duck.
6. Since 1933, the Peabody Hotel in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee has maintained a tradition of keeping one Mallard drake and four Mallard hens, called The Peabody Ducks. The Mallards are provided by a local farmer and there is a new team of Mallards every three months.
7. On hatching, ducklings are yellow on the underside and face with streaks by the eyes; their backs and the tops of their heads are black with yellow spots. Its legs and bill are also black. After about a month, the duckling's plumage changes to look like the adult female. After two months, the sexes become distinguishable: males have yellow bills, reddish breast feathers and a curled tail feather (drake feather); the females' bills are black and orange, and the breast feathers brown. Over the next few months, the plumage of the males changes to its characteristic colours including its bottle-green head. Both male and female Mallards have iridescent purple blue speculum feathers edged with white.
8. A group of Mallards may be called a battling, lute, sord, doppling, or daggle.
9. Average life expectancy is 3 years, but they have been known to live long as 29 years.
10. Most species of domestic duck are descended from Mallards.

If you like mallards, or ducks in general, you can see more of them at Duck of the Day courtesy of the University of York.