Mallard Duckling

Description:

Adorable, black and yellow duckling.

Habitat:

According to Wikipedia, "The Mallard is widely distributed across the Northern Hemisphere, North America from southern and central Alaska to Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, and across Eurasia, from Iceland and southern Greenland and parts of Morocco (North Africa) in the west, Scandinavia to the north, and to Siberia, Japan, and China in the east.[8] It is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters farther south. For example, in North America it winters south to Mexico, but also regularly strays into Central America and the Caribbean between September and May.[16] The Mallard inhabits a wide range of habitat and climates, from Arctic Tundra to subtropical regions. It is found in both fresh- and salt water wetlands, including parks, small ponds, rivers, lakes and estuaries, as well as shallow inlets and open sea within sight of the coastline. Water depths of less than 1 metre (3.3 ft) are preferred, birds avoiding areas more than a few metres deep. They are attracted to bodies of water with aquatic vegetation.[14]"

Notes:

This cute duckling was a victim of a cat attack. My friend saved it from the kitty and brought it to me. I kept it for a day to make sure it would be alright and then released it to a nearby Mallard family with ducklings the same size. It went happily with its new surrogate family. You can see it swimming around in my back yard pond during its short stay with me.