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Bird

Mallard

Anas platyrhynchos

Lives in Virginia all year and nests here. Found in all 133 counties and cities, across 13 habitats.

Here
All year
Nesting
Nests here
Range
All 133 counties and cities
Habitats
13

At a glance

Group
Birds
Here
All year
Nesting
Nests here
Range
All 133 counties and cities
Habitats
13
Habitat models
Summer, Winter

Where it lives

The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.

Habitats in Virginia 13

Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.

1 of 13

Streams, rivers and their banks

Drawing, Autumn Landscape in North Carolina, 1865–70
SummerWinterSouth-Central Interior Small Stream and RiparianFrederic Edwin Church, Autumn Landscape in North Carolina (1865-70): a boulder-strewn mountain river under autumn-coloured ridges. Regional view: the painting does not name the exact site. Shown: North Carolina mountains (Frederic Edwin Church, oil sketch 1865-70; Cooper Hewitt), a neighboring state.Drawing, Autumn Landscape in North Carolina, 1865–70, Frederic Edwin Church, 1865-1870. Public domain. Source record.

Swamps

The Chickahominy Swamp LCCN2004661405
SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Streamhead Seepage Swamp - Pocosin - and Baygall; Central Interior and Appalachian Swamp Systems; Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Tidal Wooded Swamp; Atlantic Coastal Plain Nonriverine Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest - Taxodium/Nyssa Modifier; Southern Piedmont/Ridge and Valley Upland Depression SwampWilliam McIlvaine, The Chickahominy Swamp (1862): wind-tossed swamp trees standing in dark water under a storm. Chickahominy Swamp, VirginiaThe Chickahominy Swamp LCCN2004661405, William McIlvaine (1813-1867), 1862. Public domain. Source record.

Coastal dunes and beaches

Open sand of beaches, dunes and the hollows between them.

WinterUnconsolidated Shore (Beach/Dune)

Coastal tidal marshes (salinity not stated)

Tidal marshes of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts where the source does not say whether the water is fresh, brackish or salt. A stated salinity files the marsh under freshwater tidal marshes or salt and brackish marshes instead.

SummerWinter

Depression ponds and limesinks

Shallow ponds in Coastal Plain depressions, such as limesinks and the ponds in some Carolina bays, that rise and fall with the seasons.

SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Depression Pondshore

Disturbed and introduced wetlands

Wet ground taken over by weedy or introduced plants after disturbance, such as common reed, Chinese tallow or tamarisk stands; the upland counterpart is roadsides, fields and disturbed ground.

Winter

Floodplain and bottomland forests

Forests on low ground beside rivers and streams that flood from time to time.

SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Blackwater Stream Floodplain Forest - Forest Modifier; South-Central Interior Large Floodplain - Forest Modifier; Southern Piedmont Large Floodplain Forest - Forest Modifier; Central Interior and Appalachian Floodplain Systems; Southern Piedmont Small Floodplain and Riparian Forest; Atlantic Coastal Plain Small Brownwater River Floodplain Forest; Atlantic Coastal Plain Brownwater Stream Floodplain Forest; South-Central Interior Small Stream and Riparian; South-Central Interior Large Floodplain

Freshwater tidal marshes

Marshes along tidal rivers where the water is fresh but rises and falls with the tide.

SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh

Hardwood and oak flatwoods

Flat, poorly drained uplands and terraces with oaks, sweetgum and sometimes loblolly pine, wet in winter and dry in summer, but neither a floodplain nor a swamp.

SummerAtlantic Coastal Plain Nonriverine Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest - Oak Dominated Modifier

Mountain bogs and fens

Wet, open, peaty mountain wetlands fed by seepage, often with sphagnum moss.

Summer

Pocosins and bay forests

Dense evergreen shrub wetlands and bay forests on wet, acid peat of the Coastal Plain.

SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Streamhead Seepage Swamp - Pocosin - and Baygall

Ponds, lakes and their shores

Still water and its edges: ponds, lakes, millponds and reservoirs.

SummerWinterOpen Water (Fresh); Atlantic Coastal Plain Large Natural Lakeshore

Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground

Black Mountainlabel QS:Len,"Black Mountain"
WinterOnly within 250 m of water.Developed, Open Space; Cultivated CroplandLyell Carr, Black Mountain: a pasture and hayfield with a log barn, rail fence and grazing cow below the Black Mountains. Shown: Black Mountain, North Carolina (Lyell E. Carr), a neighboring state.Black Mountainlabel QS:Len,"Black Mountain", Lyell Carr, c. 1890-1912. Public domain. Source record.
Other habitats in its models (58)

Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Virginia. Those recorded in Virginia first, the rest by region.

Elsewhere in the South (31)
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Small Blackwater River Floodplain Forest Winter.
  • Central Florida Herbaceous Pondshore Winter.
  • Central Florida Herbaceous Seep Winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Savanna and Wet Prairie Winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Small Stream and River Floodplain Forest Summer and winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Tidal Wooded Swamp Summer and winter.
  • East-Central Texas Plains Riparian Forest Winter.
  • Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Mississippi River Bottomland Depression Summer.
  • Mississippi River Low Floodplain (Bottomland) Forest Summer and winter.
  • Mississippi River Riparian Forest Summer.
  • South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh Winter.
  • South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Winter.
  • South Florida Wet Marl Prairie Winter.
  • South-Central Interior / Upper Coastal Plain Wet Flatwoods Summer.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Blackwater River Floodplain Forest Winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Herbaceous Seepage Bog Summer.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Hydric Hammock Summer.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp Summer.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Cypress Dome Summer.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall Summer.
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest Summer and winter.
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Large River Swamp Summer and winter.
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Nepheline Syenite Glade Winter, only within 250 m of water.
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Northern Calcareous Prairie Winter, only within 250 m of water.
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall Summer and winter.
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Small Stream and River Forest Summer and winter.
  • Western Great Plains Floodplain Summer.
Northeast (1)
  • North-Central Interior Wet Flatwoods Summer and winter.
Midwest (2)
  • Western Great Plains Open Freshwater Depression Wetland Summer.
  • Western Great Plains Saline Depression Wetland Summer.
Land cover and other classes (24)
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Forested Wetland Summer.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland Summer and winter.
  • Central Interior and Appalachian Shrub-Herbaceous Wetland Systems Summer and winter.
  • Developed, Low Intensity Winter, beside its main habitat.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Forest Modifier Summer and winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Herbaceous Modifier Summer and winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Summer and winter.
  • Eastern Great Plains Floodplain Systems Summer and winter.
  • Eastern Great Plains Wet Meadow, Prairie, and Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Lower Mississippi River Bottomland Depressions - Forest Modifier Summer.
  • Mississippi River Floodplain and Riparian Forest Summer and winter.
  • Open Water (Aquaculture) Summer and winter.
  • South-Central Interior Large Floodplain - Herbaceous Modifier Summer and winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Bay/Gum Modifier Summer.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Clethra Modifier Summer.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Nupea Modifier Summer.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Pine Modifier Summer.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Taxodium Modifier Summer.
  • Tamaulipan Riparian Systems Winter.
  • Texas-Louisiana Coastal Prairie Slough Winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore Summer and winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer and winter.
  • Western Great Plains Depressional Wetland Systems Summer and winter.
  • Western Great Plains Floodplain Systems Summer and winter.

All habitats

Seasons in Virginia

  • Year-round: nests here, in all 133 counties and cities.

Food plants

Diet records by plant genus, from studies across North America. Not a record from this state. Plants matched by genus.

Native plants in these genera 295

Plant genera in its diet records (24)
  • Potamogeton Seeds and leaves. 9 diet records. 17 native plants in Virginia
  • Carex Seeds. 5 diet records. 170 native plants in Virginia
  • Lemna 3 diet records. 7 native plants in Virginia
  • Ceratophyllum Fruit and seeds. 2 diet records. 2 native plants in Virginia
  • Echinochloa Seeds. 2 diet records. 3 native plants in Virginia
  • Myriophyllum Seeds. 2 diet records. 4 native plants in Virginia
  • Polygonum Seeds. 2 diet records. 3 native plants in Virginia
  • Sagittaria Seeds and roots. 2 diet records. 13 native plants in Virginia
  • Schoenoplectus Seeds. 2 diet records. 6 native plants in Virginia
  • Scirpus Seeds. 2 diet records. 11 native plants in Virginia
  • Sparganium Seeds. 2 diet records. 3 native plants in Virginia
  • Stuckenia Seeds and roots. 2 diet records. 1 native plant in Virginia
  • Beckmannia Seeds. 1 diet record. 0 native plants in Virginia
  • Bidens Seeds. 1 diet record. 12 native plants in Virginia
  • Brasenia Seeds. 1 diet record. 1 native plant in Virginia
  • Chara 1 diet record. 0 native plants in Virginia
  • Hippuris Seeds. 1 diet record. 0 native plants in Virginia
  • Najas Seeds. 1 diet record. 2 native plants in Virginia
  • Persicaria Seeds. 1 diet record. 11 native plants in Virginia
  • Quercus Seeds. 1 diet record. 27 native plants in Virginia
  • Scolochloa Seeds. 1 diet record. 0 native plants in Virginia
  • Triticum 1 diet record. 0 native plants in Virginia
  • Zannichellia Seeds. 1 diet record. 1 native plant in Virginia
  • Zizania Seeds. 1 diet record. 1 native plant in Virginia

Avian Diet Database (Hurlbert Lab), CC0 1.0.

Also found in its main habitats

Its main habitats in Virginia, by how much of its habitat model each one is, with the birds most characteristic of each and the plants that grow wild there. Shared habitat, not food.

Floodplain and bottomland forests

Birds 86

Plants 381

All of floodplain and bottomland forests in Virginia

Swamps

Birds 82

Plants 318

All of swamps in Virginia

Freshwater tidal marshes

Birds 78

Plants 30

All of freshwater tidal marshes in Virginia

USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.

Sources