By Bob Rich | 2024-04-23
![Community photo entitled by Cecille Kennedy on 04/23/2024 at Depoe Bay, Oregon](https://earthsky.org/upl/gravity_forms/6-d184048789a60d766a02a8e43117298b/2024/04/DSCN9951-drake.mallard.23apr2024-b.jpg)
On 04/23/2024 04:39 pm by Cecille Kennedy| Depoe Bay, Oregon
This male mallard was feeding from the tiny dam by the harbor. He has lovely breeding feathers and curly feathers on his tail. I so enjoyed watching him stretch his neck and nibble on seaweeds but he has seen me and he swam on the strea then walked and hid behind the reeds keeping as still as can be.
Mallards are “dabbling ducks” that is, they feed in the water by tipping forward and grazing on underwater plants.
At breeding male mallards have a dark, iridescent-green head and bright yellow bill, the grayish body sandwiched between a brown breast and black rear. Mallard males have a curly feather on their tail. Both sexes have a white-bordered, purple blue “speculum” patch in the wing.
Nikon P1000
crop in Photoshop, enhance in Franzis 8Pro