Massey mallard

The large pond near the veterinary building at Massey University is a great place to watch and photograph wildlife, as it supports a large population of ducks along with other birds like black swans and coots, all thoroughly habituated to humans — and, if you're lucky, an occasional rat. The ducks are mostly mallards, although these are likely to have interbred to varying degrees with the native grey duck which, as a consequence, are now critically rare.

This one, however, is about as clear an example of a true mallard female as you're likely to find in Aotearoa.

[f4 at 1/250 sec.; ISO 400]

All content © 2016 Pete McGregor