Witham Birds

Description: A large and most familiar duck. The male has a glossy green head with a yellow bill and a mostly grey body. The female is mostly brown with an orange bill. 

Habitat: Mallards are very widespread; you can see them in any wetland areas and are a common site on urban ponds and waterways. 

Diet: Mallards are dabbling ducks with varied diets, feeding mainly on insects, seeds, plants and roots. 

Breeding: Mallards pair up in late autumn. IN spring the female builds a nest, usually on the ground in vegetation, but sometimes in tree hollows. She uses leaves and grasses, plucking soft, downy feathers from her breast to line the nest cup. Between spring and early summer, she will lay an egg every one or two days until she has a clutch of about 12 eggs. At this point the female will incubate the eggs for a further 4 weeks and the male leaves to congregate with other males. 

Interesting Fact: In cricket if the batsman fails to get any runs it is called a duck as zero resembles the shape of a duck’s egg. 

Description: The moorhen is mostly dark brown and black in colour with a white stripe along the flank. They have a yellow-tipped, red beak and, unlike most aquatic birds, they do not have webbed feet and can often be spotted skulking around out of the water on long yellowish-green legs with long toes. 

Habitat: Moorhens can be found in most wetland areas, including ponds, rivers and even ditches. 

Diet: Moorhens are omnivorous, eating aquatic plants, small fish, fruit and seed, worms, snails and insects. 

Breeding: During breeding season moorhens become aggressively territorial and you will often see two females fighting for territory – leaning back on the water’s surface to bring their large, clawed feet out of the water to kick each other. 

They build scruffy nests from dead vegetation, often on floating plants, in which the female will lay an average of 6 eggs, but sometimes up to 20! Both parents will incubate the eggs for the 3 weeks until hatching. Moorhens will also sometimes lay eggs in each other nests to increase productivity. 

Interesting Fact: Hawaiian mythology tells of how a moorhen brought fire to mankind, scorching its forehead red as it did so.

Description: Very large, yet elegant bird with a long, curved neck. They have completely white plumage and an orange bill with a black knob at the base. Both male (cob) and female (pen) are hard to tell apart, although during breeding season the black knob at the base of the male’s bill increases in size. 

Habitat: Mute swans can be seen anywhere with slow flowing watercourses, ponds or shallow lakes. 

Diet: Aquatic plants from the river or lakebed, also small fish, frogs and worms and grass 

Breeding: Swans usually mate for life, unless one dies and the other will then find another mate. 

The female builds a large nest mound on an island or the bank of the river or lake using sticks and dried vegetation which the male collects for her. They will often re-use the same nest where; in late spring the female will lay up to seven eggs which take about five weeks to hatch. The young cygnets are brown and usually stay with the parents until they develop their white, adult plumage. 

Interesting Fact: There is a constellation of bright stars called Cygnus which is the Latin word for swan. It is also known as the northern cross. In Greek mythology, the constellation represents Orpheus, who was transformed into a swan after death