Mallard
Anas platyrhynchos
A dabbling duck of wetlands and open water. Confirmed in Georgia on the 2024 national bird checklist as a year-round resident, a passage migrant, and a winter visitor. Breeding is concentrated on highland lakes; numbers rise in autumn and winter.
At a glance
Key facts in one look
Diet
Plants and small aquatic animals
Status in Georgia
Resident, migrant, winter visitor
Size
50–65 cm
Habitat
Lakes, wetlands, rivers, parks
Family
Anatidae
Conservation
LC
Human interaction: It is not venomous and is not a threat to people. Do not chase or catch wild birds. Feeding bread in parks is common but is poor nutrition; leave wild flocks alone. Domestic ducks are the same species and may look white, piebald, or otherwise atypical — those birds are still mallards. Hybrid young with wild birds occur where domestic stock mixes freely.
Overview
What is Mallard
The mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) is a medium-sized dabbling duck in the family Anatidae. The usual Georgian name is გარეული იხვი. The 2024 annotated checklist of the birds of Georgia codes it YR-R; M; WV: a breeding resident present throughout the year, a bird of passage, and a winter visitor. Seasonality is classed as high-quality (code A). Occurrence quality is high (H), with photograph, ringing data, and hunter-collected evidence. Adults are about 50–65 cm long at species level. Breeding males have a green head and yellow bill; females are mottled brown. It is not a threat to people. IUCN lists the species as Least Concern. The 2024 checklist assigns the same category nationally. It is not on Georgia’s 2014 Red List.
Last updated
Gallery
Mallard in photos
Photo: Charles J. Sharp
Caen Hill Flight, Wiltshire ·
Photo: Charles J. Sharp
Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire ·
Photo: Charles J. Sharp
Marken ·
Photo: Alpsdake
Photo: Brocken Inaglory
Identification
How to identify Mallard
A medium dabbling duck. Breeding males have a glossy green head, white neck-ring, chestnut breast and yellow bill. Females and eclipse males are mottled brown with an orange-and-dark bill. Both sexes show a blue-purple white-bordered wing speculum. In Georgia the usual confusion is other brown ducks and domestic park ducks.
- 01
Length about 50–65 cm at species level; wingspan often about 81–98 cm; mass often about 0.7–1.6 kg. A separate measured series from Georgia is not given on this page. Breeding male: bottle-green head, narrow white collar, purple-brown breast, grey body, black rear, curled central tail feathers, yellow bill. Female: cryptic mottled brown, darker crown and eye-stripe, bill mottled orange and dark. Both sexes have orange legs and a glossy blue-purple secondary panel (speculum) edged with white — clear in flight and often at rest when the wing is folded.
- 02
Juveniles resemble the female. After breeding, males enter eclipse plumage and look brown and female-like for weeks while they moult flight feathers; the yellow bill and (when visible) speculum still help. Domestic and feral birds may be white, black, piebald, or oversized; they remain this species and interbreed freely with wild mallards.
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Eurasian teal (Anas crecca) is much smaller, with a green-and-chestnut head pattern in males; it is BB; M; WV on the 2024 checklist. Northern pintail (Anas acuta) is longer-necked with a needle tail in males; checklist status OB; M. Gadwall (Mareca strepera) males are grey with a black rear and a white wing-patch, not a green head; BB; M. Northern shoveler (Spatula clypeata) has a huge spatulate bill; BB; M. Diving ducks (Aythya) sit lower in the water and dive; they lack the mallard’s dabbling tip-up. This atlas does not yet have separate pages for those lookalikes.
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It is harmless. A green-headed yellow-billed duck on open water in Georgia in spring is almost always this species. A mottled brown duck with a white-edged blue wing-panel is usually a female or eclipse mallard, or a closely related dabbling duck — check size and bill shape.
Biology
Habitat, diet, behavior, and conservation
Habitat and range
Look for it on lakes, reservoirs, rivers, marshes, flooded fields, and urban ponds. It is a dabbling duck: it feeds at the surface or by tipping forward, not by deep diving. The 2024 checklist confirms country-level resident, migrant, and winter-visitor status but does not publish a municipality map. Named Georgian localities with published counts or sampling: the Javakheti highland lakes Madatapa, Bughdasheni, Khanchali, Saghamo, Paravani and Kartsakhi (Samtskhe–Javakheti) are mapped on this page from waterfowl census and avian-influenza study sites. Lewis et al. (2013) place the main Georgian duck breeding and post-breeding moult concentrations on those shallow upland lakes (Madatapa about 2,100 m), and winter concentrations on the Kolkheti Lowland Wetlands of the Black Sea coast. Mid-winter duck counts on Kolkheti were of the order of about 50,000 birds of several species, not mallard alone. Those two regional blocks are coloured from those sources. Other wetlands may hold birds, but this page does not colour them without a compiled gazetteer. Domestic and feral mallards also use park lakes in towns; those birds are the same species and often hybridise with wild stock.
Diet
There is no separate weighed Georgian diet study on this page. At species level it takes seeds, aquatic plants, invertebrates, and small vertebrates it can catch at the water’s edge or by dabbling. In parks it also takes bread and other food from people — that is not a wild diet. It is a traditional gamebird in Georgia; hunting is regulated separately from Red List protection.
Behavior
It is active by day and often stays in loose flocks outside the breeding season. Flight is fast and direct, with rapid wingbeats; the blue-purple wing-panel (speculum) bordered with white is a useful mark in the air. The female’s loud quack is the familiar duck call; males give quieter, softer notes. The clip is xeno-canto XC1094846 (Petter Westberg, Busör, Halland, Sweden) — a male call, not a Georgian recording. Nesting is usually on the ground near water, in cover; clutches at species level are often about 8–13 eggs with incubation of about 26–28 days — those figures are from the wider range, not a Georgian nest sample on this page. The 2024 checklist treats the species as a resident breeder in Georgia. Numbers increase with autumn migrants and winter visitors. Eclipse (non-breeding) males look much more like females for part of the year after the breeding season.
Conservation
BirdLife International assesses Anas platyrhynchos as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (2025 assessment), with a very large global range and population. The 2024 Georgian bird checklist assigns global and national category LC. Georgia’s 2014 Red List (Government Resolution No. 190) does not list the mallard; listed related waterfowl there include ruddy shelduck (Tadorna ferruginea, წითელი იხვი, VU) and white-headed duck (Oxyura leucocephala, თეთრთვალა იხვი, EN). Checklist evidence for this species includes ringing data (RD) and hunter samples (CH), so regulated hunting is part of the documented Georgian picture. Wetland loss, disturbance, and disease (including avian influenza sampled in Georgian ducks) are pressures discussed in regional studies; a separate national mallard population trend is not given on this page. Do not disturb nests or handle wild birds without a permit.
Yes. The 2024 annotated checklist of the birds of Georgia lists it as a confirmed year-round resident, passage migrant, and winter visitor (YR-R; M; WV).
On open water and wetlands. Named published sites include the Javakheti lakes (Madatapa, Bughdasheni, Khanchali, Saghamo, Paravani, Kartsakhi) and the Kolkheti Lowland Wetlands in winter. Park ponds also hold mallards, often with domestic-looking birds. This page does not map every region.
Breeding male: green head, yellow bill, white collar, chestnut breast. Female: mottled brown with orange-and-dark bill. Both sexes show a blue-purple white-bordered wing speculum. Smaller teal and shovelers differ in size and bill shape.
About 50–65 cm long at species level, with a wingspan often given around 81–98 cm and mass about 0.7–1.6 kg. A separate measured series from Georgia is not given on this page.
Seeds, aquatic plants, invertebrates, and other small prey taken by dabbling. Diet has not been studied separately in Georgia on this page.
All year as a resident, plus passage and winter visitors, according to the 2024 checklist. Numbers are typically higher from autumn through winter on lowland wetlands.
Yes. YR-R on the 2024 checklist means resident breeder. Published work points to the Javakheti upland lakes as the main duck breeding and post-breeding moult area; a nationwide nest census is not on this page.
It is harmless. It is globally Least Concern and coded LC nationally on the 2024 checklist. It is not on the 2014 Georgian Red List. It is a traditional game species; follow current hunting rules. Do not disturb nests.
- Budagashvili & Javakhishvili 2024 — The birds of Georgia (Sandgrouse 46)
- SABUKO — Bird checklist
- Melikishvili et al. 2022 — Migratory Waterfowl Census on the Lakes of Javakheti
- Lewis et al. 2013 — Avian Influenza Virus Surveillance in Wild Birds in Georgia (PLOS ONE)
- Papkiauri et al. 2026 — Genomic biosurveillance of mallards at a Georgian stopover (Frontiers in Microbiology)
- BirdLife DataZone — Mallard
- IUCN Red List — Anas platyrhynchos
- IOC World Bird List
- Avibase — Georgia bird checklist
- საქართველოს მთავრობის დადგენილება №190 (2014) — წითელი ნუსხა
- ქართული საბჭოთა ენციკლოპედია — გარეული იხვი
- Birds of the World — Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)
- Wikimedia Commons — male, Wiltshire (Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — female, Blenheim (Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — male in flight, Marken (Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — in flight (Alpsdake, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikimedia Commons — ducklings (Brocken Inaglory, CC BY-SA 3.0)
- xeno-canto XC1094846 — Anas platyrhynchos (Petter Westberg, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Species profiles are compiled from peer-reviewed literature and established biodiversity databases, and are reviewed as new taxonomic and conservation data become available.
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