M&M's

These are happy ducks that probably should migrate, but sometimes stick around due to the kindness of strangers. (i.e., bread handouts). The Dad's have the green heads and the Mom's are the pretty brown color.

Mallards are kind of easy to confuse with the their cousin which only lives in Florida, primarily in the Panhandle area called the Florida Mottled Duck (Okay a few renegades have cruised the edge of the Gulf to Mexico. Probably crossed the border looking for a good time and tequilla shots). You can read about the Mottled quacker by clicking here .

I think you can tell the Mallards apart from the Mottled Ducks generally by the two white stripes crossing the upper part of their wings. The Mallards have white NASCAR style racing stripes. The Mottled's just have nice brown feather patterns. Not all is perfect for the Mottled quackers. The Mottled Duck, like its close relative the American Black Duck, has been negatively impacted by the loss of wetlands and hybridization with introduced populations of Mallard. That means people let Mallards go and they breed with the Mottleds creating .... well duck problems.