I checked Bent's "Life Histories of North American Birds" and found the
following information on Mallard whistle calls:
"Mr. II. Wormald (1910) has given a detailed account of the court- ship of the
mallard, illustrated with excellent drawings, to which I refer the reader. He
says:
The performance usually begins by four or five drakes swimming round a duck
with their heads sank, and their necks drawn back, and in this attitude they
have the appearance of being most unconcerned. This I will call action No. 1.
After swimming round iii this fashion for some little time, the mallards will
suddenly lower their bills so that the tips of them are under the surface, and
as they do so they stand up in the water and then rapidly pass their bills up
their breasts. This motion is performed with somewhat of a jerk, and if one
observes very closely, a tiny jet of water will be seen to be thrown out in
front by the bill being jerked from the water; this is interesting, as one also
finds this jet of water in the spring "show " of the golden-eye, but in this
case calls made by the drake kicking out a small jet of water with his foot
while he quickly throws back his head.
The mallard while performing action No. 2 as I will designate it, utters a low
note rather difficult to describe, but I think it may be said to be a low
whistle with a suspicion of a groan in it, as though it caused the bird an
effort to utter. Following this, the mallards lower their breasts and raise
their tails two or three times in quick succession; and this, which we may call
action No. S is often followed by a repetition of actions Nos. I and 2. A quick
"throw up" of head and tail, with the feathers of the head puffed out, is
action No. 4, and this is followed quickly by action No. 5 in which the drakes
stretch out their necks with their throats just over the water and swim rapidly
about in different directions, when, apparently by common consent, they all
come back to action No. I, and go through the whole performance over again."
I personally have only heard and recorded quacks from Mallards but my
experience is very limited.
BTW, Birdzilla http://www.birdzilla.com/ has the complete Bent's "Life
Histories of North American Birds" on line, and since this series of books
are a government publication they are not affected by copyright law.
Jim
Jim Morgan
Prescott, Arizona USA
http://www.wingsofnature.com
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