Mallard
Anas platyrhynchos · Waterfowl
Mallard
Central Park, 26 October 2025
A drake Mallard in full breeding plumage on a Central Park pond in October, the iridescent green head shifting between green and blue-black with the light. It is the duck of every pond in the Northern Hemisphere, and the park's birds stay all year.
The single most familiar duck in the world, and the wild ancestor of nearly every domestic duck there is, from the Aylesbury to the Peking. The curled feathers at the tail are the drake's alone, and they are the one mark the domestic breeds have never lost.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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