{"id":49531,"date":"2017-11-22T05:43:52","date_gmt":"2017-11-22T12:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=49531"},"modified":"2025-04-04T05:58:54","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T10:58:54","slug":"drake-mallards-bathing-and-splashing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/11\/22\/drake-mallards-bathing-and-splashing\/","title":{"rendered":"Drake Mallards Bathing and Splashing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DrakeDrake Mallard bathing and splashing – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Every time I post Mallards on my blog my daily stats take a nose dive. I’m guessing some people don’t find these dabbling ducks all that interesting and that is fine by me but because they are the first ducks I remember seeing and interacting with as a child I feel a connection to them and love to watch and photograph them as they go about the business of being ducks. I recall that my mom even knitted sweaters for family members with Mallards on them when I was about 6 or 7 years old.<\/p>\n

Yesterday while looking for birds to photograph I saw a small flock of Mallards at a local pond who swam out into the water where several of them began to bathe. When one of these birds starts to bathe it seems that others soon follow.<\/p>\n

I loved how in this image the drake appeared to be giving me the stink eye through a sheath of water covering its back, bill, head and eyes.<\/p>\n

\"MallardMallard drake taking a bath – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 500, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The ducks dip the front of their bodies under the water then shake it around as they raise their heads back up while wiggling their tails and rocking back and forth. I guess you could say they dive head first into their baths.<\/p>\n

Some of the drake Mallards are sporting their breeding plumage now, some are not quite there yet but they soon will be.<\/p>\n

\"BathingBathing male Mallard – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 500, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

This drake Mallard seemed aware of the sound of my shutter as I fired away but that didn’t seem to dampen his desire to bathe.<\/p>\n

I have read that bathing and the sequence of movements during the process of bathing can be a means of communication for this species and other species of birds. It is obviously more subtle than calls, courtship behaviors or territorial disputes but after many years of observing and photographing birds it does make sense to me that they are communicating.<\/p>\n

\"MallardMallard drake flapping its wings after bathing – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 500, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

After bathing the Mallards lift up, flap their wings and shake the water off and I have also noticed them repeat the process of bathing several times in succession. Bathe, shake, flap. I don’t know what they are saying, I’m just a bird photographer after all and I have never learned to speak duck.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Mallard photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After bathing the Mallards lift up, flap their wings and shake the water off and I have also noticed them repeat the process of bathing several times in succession. Bathe, shake, flap. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,965,709,26],"tags":[4237,4373,4717,4483,1129,126,6239,4062,1604,7951,1984,2688,8018,3996,2063,5498],"class_list":["post-49531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-mallards","category-salt-lake-county-utah","category-utah","tag-anas-platyrhynchos","tag-bathing","tag-dabbling-ducks","tag-drake","tag-duck","tag-ducks-2","tag-flapping","tag-male","tag-mallard","tag-mallards","tag-pond","tag-splashing","tag-urban","tag-water","tag-waterfowl","tag-wings"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/mallard-drake-bathing-mia-mcpherson-7767.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-cST","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":109334,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/01\/05\/dapper-mallard-drake-in-snow\/","url_meta":{"origin":49531,"position":0},"title":"Dapper Mallard Drake In Snow","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 5, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"After I photographed the handsome Gadwall drake that I shared yesterday I couldn't resist taking images of this alert and dapper Mallard drake in the snow.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Dapper Mallard drake in snow, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/mallard-drake-dapper-snow-mia-mcpherson-7562.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/mallard-drake-dapper-snow-mia-mcpherson-7562.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/mallard-drake-dapper-snow-mia-mcpherson-7562.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/mallard-drake-dapper-snow-mia-mcpherson-7562.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":37408,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/03\/25\/mallard-drake-portrait-salt-lake-county-utah\/","url_meta":{"origin":49531,"position":1},"title":"Mallard Drake Portrait Salt Lake County, Utah","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I was able to take a Mallard drake portrait of one of the ducks that were close and loved how this showed the blue green iridescence.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mallard Drake portrait, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/mallard-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3612.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/mallard-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3612.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/mallard-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3612.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/mallard-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3612.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":110126,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/02\/09\/calling-mallard-drake-in-the-city\/","url_meta":{"origin":49531,"position":2},"title":"Calling Mallard Drake In The City","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 9, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I enjoy photographing even the most abundant ducks at my local city ponds. I simply couldn't resist taking images of this calling Mallard drake two days ago.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Calling Mallard drake on an urban pond, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/mallard-drake-open-bill-mia-mcphersonn-2002.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/mallard-drake-open-bill-mia-mcphersonn-2002.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/mallard-drake-open-bill-mia-mcphersonn-2002.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/mallard-drake-open-bill-mia-mcphersonn-2002.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":50395,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/12\/29\/mallards-in-flight-in-golden-afternoon-light\/","url_meta":{"origin":49531,"position":3},"title":"Mallards In Flight In Golden Afternoon Light","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 29, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Photographing the Mallards in flight in golden afternoon light was a terrific way to end my bird photography session for the evening.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Hen Mallards in flight in afternoon light, Salt Lake County, 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light and snowy conditions on the first day of the year I did not take many photos of the birds that I saw but I did get a few mallard images that I liked.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Low light portrait of a Mallard drake resting in snow, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/mallard-drake-portrait-low-light-snow-mia-mcpherson-8677.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/mallard-drake-portrait-low-light-snow-mia-mcpherson-8677.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/mallard-drake-portrait-low-light-snow-mia-mcpherson-8677.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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