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Expedition 🇬🇧 United Kingdom

Mallard in United Kingdom

The green-headed duck of every park pond — a familiar waterbird and ancestor of nearly all domestic ducks.

Mallard

The species

The mallard is the most familiar duck on Earth — and the wild ancestor of almost every domestic duck breed. Males in breeding plumage carry an unmistakable glossy green head, white collar, and chestnut breast; females are elegantly mottled brown, built for camouflage on the nest.

Habitat in United Kingdom

Mallards inhabit ponds, rivers, lakes, marshes, and estuaries across the Northern Hemisphere and have been introduced worldwide. They favour slow-moving freshwater with vegetated edges for nesting, but adapt readily to urban park lakes, canals, and flooded gravel pits.

Where to spot one

  • Richmond Park

    London

    Ancient parkland where red deer graze at dawn, mallards paddle the ponds, and foxes slip through bracken at the woodland edge.

  • The New Forest

    Hampshire

    Open heath and oak woodland where foxes, deer, ponies, and woodland birds share a landscape that feels surprisingly wild for southern England.

  • Hyde Park & Regent's Park

    London

    Urban park lakes for mallards, tree lines full of sparrows, and pigeons along the Serpentine — starter discoveries in the heart of the city.

  • Cotswolds Farmland

    Gloucestershire & Oxfordshire

    Hedgerows, pasture, and village edges — classic fox country where russet coats show clearly against green fields at last light.

Conservation status

LC — Least Concern

Mallards are Least Concern with a vast and expanding global range. Hunting regulation, wetland protection, and the species' adaptability to human-modified landscapes have kept populations healthy across most of their range.

Keep exploring

Keep exploring

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