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Mallard Sounds: Call, Flight call & Begging call

Hear what the Mallard sounds like: real field recordings including its call, flight call and begging call, each played with its recordist's credit and licence.

Mallard
Photo: Tetiana.iefimenko / CC BY 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

This page documents the voice of the Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) through real field recordings, grouped by the kind of sound each one captures. Every clip is a real recording made in the wild, played with its recordist's credit and licence — listen section by section to tell this bird's different sounds apart.

Pair what you hear with the full Mallard profile — plumage, size, range and where to see one.

The Mallard has 4 field recordings on Birbs — 3 of them classified across 3 kinds of sound: its call, flight call and begging call.

Call 1 recording

Calls are the short, simple notes birds use all year round — to stay in contact, coordinate with a flock, or react to what is happening around them.

Mallard — Call

Recorded by Peter Boesman Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Flight call 1 recording

Flight calls are the notes a bird gives on the wing, helping flocks stay together — and a key way researchers monitor nocturnal migration.

Mallard — Flight call

Recorded by Jeff Stewart Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Begging call 1 recording

Begging calls are the persistent, insistent notes of chicks and fledglings soliciting food from their parents.

Mallard — Begging call, song

Recorded by David Darrell-Lambert Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

More recordings 1 recording

Recordings whose sound type the recordist didn't specify.

Mallard — Song / call

Recorded by Miika Silfverberg Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

About these recordings

The audio comes from the xeno-canto community archive, where field recordists share their recordings under Creative Commons licences. Each player shows who recorded the clip and the licence it is shared under, and links through to the recording's own page. Recording quality and background noise vary — these are wild birds recorded in the field, not studio audio.

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Sources & further reading

  1. xeno-canto (Creative-Commons bird sound archive — every recording credits its recordist) (opens in a new tab)
  2. IOC World Bird List (taxonomy & names) (opens in a new tab)