Posted by Carole Berney on September 29, 2007

Q: In a pond recently, I saw mallards actually diving under, in a similar way to a cormorant there, to get what seemed to be fresh water snails from the bottom. I was amazed since usually all I've seen them do is to stick their heads under water and their tails up in the air to get at vegetation. Is it possible that these mallards learned this behavior from the cormorant who was fishing in the same pond? Or can "dabbling" ducks dive under for food also?

Habitat: pond/lake

State: Massachusetts

Habitat: pond/lake

A: The Mallards didn't learn this behavior from the cormorants, although birds can and do learn to an extent. Dabbling ducks are not as well-adapted for diving like the Redhead, mergansers, or scaup, for example, but can and do dive, kind of, if there is something especially tasty for them to eat. If you noticed, the Mallards probably had to "work" much harder to get down and to stay down long enough to get what they were after. If the water had been very deep, they wouldn't have been able to descend far - the diving ducks can go down quite deep in their feeding forays.

Good to see that you're observant and "thinking". The natural world is so full of different kinds of animal behaviors that a trip outside is almost always full of interesting things to see. Thanks so much for writing.

John Wiessinger ( September 30, 2007)