Mallard ID: Everything You Need to Know About the World's Favorite Duck

What is a Mallard Duck?

For many, the mallard is not just a duck, but THE duck. The answer God came up with when he asked himself the question: “What if I were to produce the ideal fowling quarry? Sizeable, aggressive, ubiquitous, beautiful, cagey, adaptive, nimble, vocal, delicious….” Behold, my friends, the mallard duck.

Scientifically speaking, Anas Platyrhynchos is the most widespread, abundant duck in the northern hemisphere. You’ll find mallards nesting in the shadow of the Kremlin; sipping in the Seine; dabbling in the moat of Disneyland’s castle; and—most likely—in the nearest wetland wherever you’re reading this. The mallard’s abundance is largely due to adaptability. Mallards are creative and aggressive re-nesters, with studies showing a willingness to attempt as many as six different nests in a single breeding season. Lots of babies, lots of birds.

How Do You Identify a Mallard Duck?

The drakes are the easiest to spot. If it’s got a big green head and a sizable grey body, you’re looking at a mallard. Hens are more subdued in their plumage, but their mottled brunette attire provides ideal camouflage for nesting and brood rearing. A giveaway for both species can be their vivid orange/red feet, which intensifies with hormone levels as breeding season draws near.

Mallard Identification Hack: It can be tough to differentiate hens and drakes from July through mid-October, when the males molt into eclipse plumage. But one feature that never changes is the color of the bill. If the brown duck you’re holding has a solid-yellow shnoz, you’ve got a greenhead.

How Do You Hunt Mallard Ducks?

Given their abundance, you’d think the mallard duck would be the easiest bird to kill. And if you’ve ever handfed Cheez-Its to greenheads in your local city park (something you shouldn’t do for the health of the bird) you may have the impression all you’d need to fill your strap is a quick hand and fishing net.

The wild mallard, however, is a different animal. To hunt mallard ducks with consistent success, you’ll need to master four techniques: scouting, hiding, decoying, calling, and shooting. The tips below can get you started.

How Do You Scout for Mallards?

Binoculars and boot leather, pilgrim; and a smartphone. You can start by searching for public wildlife areas on whichever mapping app you prefer, then consult local wildlife regulations for access rules (most agencies have a “contact us” feature on their website that can be a great way for newbies to ask questions.) You can do a lot of work with your thumbs by scanning maps and marking likely habitat features, but the best way to scout for mallards is to get your waders muddy and put eyes on them. The binoculars will come in handy for spotting mallards across large bodies of water, but also for following birds that are already aloft.

Mallard Scouting Hack: When you find a concentration of mallards, hunt it ASAP. These birds are patternable, but mallards are also highly sensitive to pressure, disturbance, and weather patterns. If you wait till Saturday to hunt the horde you found on Tuesday, you could be watching empty skies. Take a personal mental health day and get in the blind.

How Do You Make a Mallard Duck Hunting Blind?

Speaking of blinds, all your scouting will be for naught if you can’t find a place to hide. Eyesight is the mallard’s primary defense and boy, is it a good one. Ducks can see 2.5-3.5 better than humans and, according to a 1986 study published by the National Institutes of Health, “the mallard duck has a retinal visual field giving 360 degrees visual coverage in the horizontal plan.” Meaning it can see everything, pretty much, on every side. And you won’t kill mallards if they can see you. Portable hides such as panel blinds or layout blinds can be effective in most situations, but you’ll want to add local vegetation. “Brush up your blind until you think you’ve over-brushed it…then brush it up some more,” a seasoned guide once instructed our group. And he’s right. If you can still stand up and shoot, there’s no such thing as “too hidden” when it comes to hawk-eyed mallards.

Mallard Duck Blind Hack: Natural vegetation can work great as a hide, provided you have cover in front, behind, and (ideally) above you. Bring a folding saw to add limbs, sagebrush, or cattails and you can make a portable, organic, disposable duck blind wherever you need one.

How Do You Decoy Mallards?

“Buy the most realistic looking decoys you can afford,” preaches mallard guru MD Johnson. And then set those dekes in a place where mallards want to be. Mallards are social birds, and one of the most magical outdoor experiences is watching a flock of fifty or more wild ducks backpedal over your fakes. Motion can be critical to making this happen, whether it’s the use of an electronic spinning wing decoy or water agitator (where legal), or a good ol’ fashioned jerk line.

Mallard Decoy Hack: Throw some honker decoys into the mix. Mallards decoy readily to Canada Geese, and the stark black-and-white color scheme and large size of goose dekes will help your spread stand out from a distance. And when it comes to dry fields, where even full-body mallard decoys can be swallowed up in ground clutter, a single greenhead spinner in a group of Canada Goose silhouettes can be murder on the mallards.

How Do You Call Mallards?

Well, let’s start with a caution: You’re probably calling too much. Yes, conversing with mallards is one of the most magical parts of the experience, and there are plenty of affordable calls and tutorial videos that can help a beginner sound decent after only a few weeks of practice. But the #1 mistake new hunters make is overcalling. Master the feeding chuckle and a subtle “quack,” keep one hand on the jerk line, and – if the wings are curled – shut up. To quote the immortal Nash Buckingham: “A duck call in the hands of a novice is one of the greatest conservation tools known to man." Quack less and kill more.

Mallard Calling Hack: Listen to live ducks and record their vocalizations. I take my lunch break in a local city park where resident mallards are rowdy and raucous, especially in breeding season. When a hen starts sawing off on the other side of the fountain, I pull out my phone and take a video. Back in the car, I grab my single reed (you DO keep a duck call in your glove box, right?) and try to imitate the recording over and over and over. There’s no better instructor than a living, breathing mallard hen.

How Do You Shoot Mallards?

In short: pattern and practice. You’ll want to pick a load with sufficient power and pellet count to kill (not cripple) a fully plumed mallard at the distance you expect to be shooting. The best way to make this determination is to buy patterning targets for duck hunting and test the loads you plan on using for hunting. If you’re using reasonably sized shot (personal rec’s: #1’s though #4’s for steel, #2’s through #6’s for bismuth, all the way down to #9’s for Tungsten blends) and can count at least half a dozen vital pellet strikes on your target, you can hit the marsh with confidence…provided you can also hit a bird on the wing. It can get expensive, but shooting clay pigeons with your duck loads is the best way to develop the skills to consistently and humanely fill your limit of mallards.

Mallard Shooting Hack: find your form. If you’re struggling to hit a flying target, get a friend to film you while you’re popping off at clay pigeons. Then share the footage with some knowledgeable deadeyes and ask them to critique your form. It’s extraordinary how correcting some simple errors (cheek off the stock, unbalanced stance, or even a poorly fitted gun) can transform a frustrated wingshooter into a mallard sniper overnight.

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