🦆 Mallard Duck
Anas platyrhynchos
The classic quack belongs to the female mallard — the green-headed males only make a raspy, quiet rasp.
🔊 Hear the call
🦆 Mallard Duck
Reference call (simulated)
“A descending series of loud nasal quacks, often in bursts of two to ten”
What they sound like
A descending series of loud nasal quacks, often in bursts of two to ten
Why they make this sound
- · Hens calling to gather ducklings or mates
- · Alarm quacking when something approaches the water
- · Contact calls between birds in flight
When you’ll hear them
Daylight and early evening year-round; noisiest in spring
Where they live
Ponds, lakes, marshes, park water features and drainage canals Across the Northern Hemisphere
Fun fact
Only the female quacks — if you're hearing classic quacking, you're hearing a hen.
Should I be concerned?
Harmless. Please don't feed them bread — it's genuinely bad for them.
Sound signature
- Sound type
- Bird vocalization — quack
- Pitch
- Medium, nasal
- Pattern
- Descending run of repeated quacks
- Frequency
- 400–2,000 Hz