Birdland: Showy Elegance

With a glossy bright green head, white collar and chestnut-colored body, the Mallard is one of the most recognizable ducks in the world. In flight, you can see its blue-violet wing patches within thin white bars. Mallards are large ducks with hefty bodies, rounded heads and wide, flat bills. They are “dabbling ducks” — meaning as they float along in the water, they feed by tipping forward and grazing on underwater plants. They almost never dive down into the depths. This Mallard Duck was photographed at Bluff Lake just east of Park Hill by Mark Silverstein.