Goldie the White Mallard Duck with her Ducklings

Goldie the white mallard duck with her ducklings

White Female Mallard Duck shows off her new Ducklings

This photo journal features a little white duck with her ducklings. The white duck is a mallard duck. It isn't unusual for mallard ducks to have unusual colourings, probably the result of centuries of inter-breeding.

Last year, a light-coloured female mallard appeared with a brood of 15 ducklings. Twelve were ordinary looking mallard ducklings, two were lighter in colour and one was golden yellow. She became 'Goldie' in a children's photo book I produced last year and she grew into a beautiful white duck.

This year, Goldie has produced her own ducklings. There are twelve of them and seven have inherited her white gene: presently they are tiny balls of yellow fluff who will also turn white as they mature. This page records the first appearance of 'Goldie' with her new ducklings.

Goldie as a little yellow duckling

Mallard Information:

• Order: Anseriformes
• Family: Anatidae
• Species: Anas platyrhynchos
• Common name: Mallard duck
• Length: 20-26 inches
• Wingspan: 32-37 inches
• Weight: 2-3 lbs
• Lifespan: 15-25 years

White mallard with yellow chicks

Mallard Ducks and Colouring

Most female mallard ducks are often describes as brown but this underestimates their beauty. They have brown and fawn markings and a black mascara stripe through the eye. Like the male, they have blue wing flashes although they are slightly less obvious than the males. Over the centuries there has been much in-breeding especially in a domestic setting and so a wide range of colourings can appear any time. White mallards with orange beaks are not uncommon and shouldn't be confused with white calling ducks. Calling ducks are smaller and much, much more vocal. Until Goldie arrived in 2011, we only had one along the canal at Bingley. That other little white goose, Smudge, who features in articles here and on Squidoo, has not produced any white offspring. Goldie on the other hand, mated with a normal coloured male mallard, has produced 7 pure yellow ducklings, destined to turn white, and another two of her twelve are lighter coloured ones. The white in this case is probably leucism, not uncommon in birds of all groups. 

White female mallard duck with different coloured ducklings

Bird behaviouir: Parental care - mallard style

An attentive mother - female mallard duck

Mallard ducks are very common but as ducklings they have a very high mortality rate. Many are taken by predators such as pike, heron, crows and magpies. Mallard ducklings generally tend to roam some distance from the female, the male being conspicuous by his absence in most cases. This makes them much more vulnerable that goslings who are generally kept close to both parents.

This is the first day these ducklings have been out on the canal and Goldie is keeping them close. Unlike some other females that have been observed she waits for stragglers and turns back to gather them in. Long may it continue.

...and so to Bed...

 With the evening light fading and rain on the way, Goldie calls the ducklings up onto the bank.  Like most youngsters there was some reluctance and it took a couple of trips back into the canal to get them all out.  Eventually though, all that could be seen was the occasional flash of a little beak beneath white tail feathers.

Goldie the mallard find a spot on the bank

Goldie calls the ducklings in and they settle in under her for the night

PHOTO GALLERY

Goldie the white mallard duck with her brood

Little Yellow Mallard Chicks

'Sisters' Yellow Mallard Ducklings

'it's a stretch' - yellow mallard duckling feeding on leaves

white female mallard duck with yellow duckling

mallard duckling and waterlily leaf

'mother and chick' white female mallard duck with duckling

mallard duckling

little yellow mallard chicks