[swampwidgeon]

I've been wondering about the lifespan of your average duck, American Black Ducks and Mallards specifically, and am having some trouble finding accurate and reliable information.

Based on what I've found the average life expectancy of an American Black Duck is apparently 26 years to the Mallards 10 years. 26 years seems crazy to me. 10 years I can believe, but is still somewhat surprising.

Anyone have any insight into this?

 

[Rick Hall]

There's a fed band return site (I don't know off hand) that gives the record band age for each species. A fed biologist once told me that one rub with that is/was that the bands tended to wear through and fall off around the 20 year mark.

 

[swampwidgeon]

There's a fed band return site (I don't know off hand) that gives the record band age for each species. A fed biologist once told me that one rub with that is/was that the bands tended to wear through and fall off around the 20 year mark.

Thanks Rick. A band is what sent me down this rabbit hole. There I was thinking that a 6 year old black duck was a real survivor.

 

[swampwidgeon]

https://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bbl/longevity ... y_main.cfm

These appear to be the outliers or oldest in the data set. I'll report back after making an official data request.

 

[mudpack]

I'd say the average life expectancy of a mallard or black is about 18 months.
The majority of ducklings die before they make it past the fledgling stage. So you could say MOST ducks in the wild have a lifetime of a few weeks. That tremendously reduces the average lifespan right there. Millions more are shot before reaching the wintering grounds in their first year. Then, natural mortality takes care of a significant number of birds each year.
We know that nearly half the birds that you see when you are hunting are hatch-year birds (less than one year old), this alone skews the average WAY down.
I'm with you: a six-year old wild mallard or black is an old bird; far older than the average.

 

[swampwidgeon]

USGS was right quick with a reply. To wit:

"Average" life expectancy is a very difficult figure to get at. If you include from hatching, of course the average would be very low, because there is high mortality during the "fuzzy" stage. A very small percentage (about 2%) of Black Ducks are banded as pre-flight youngsters, so some of that mortality is reflected in our data. Of course, hunting contributes to shortened potential life span as well, so the best we could do is say that a good guess at average life span includes hunting mortality as well as infant mortality. The longest-lived Black Duck on record, based on band recoveries is 26 years. If you take the mid-point of that, you could say that 13 could pass for an average. However, if you look at the attached file, you will see that most are shot in their first year of life. So using the numbers in that table, the average works out to about 5 years. BUT also remember that our data do not include those birds that get banded but never get re-encountered. Those would obviously have longer life span, but we can never know what that would be. Also there are those birds who never get banded or encountered."

There was an accompanying excel spreadsheet of the raw data from the USGS historical database but I don't know how I would include that here.

 

[BishopC4]

Average life expectancy is pretty low. However there are birds out there that break the mold. Shot a banded drake mallard last year that was banded in 2007 and was at least a year or two old when it was banded. You just never know what you might find.

 

[Yuchi1]

Oldest I've recovered was a Susie sporting a 11YO band with the banding occurring at 2YO according to the certificate. The band had an old pellet dent in it as well.

 

[Jarvis]

Ducks can live a long time.. 10-15 years

 

[mudpack]

Wild ducks CAN live 10 years or more, but 99.999% of them do not.
This is still an interesting subject.

...remember that our data do not include those birds that get banded but never get re-encountered. Those would obviously have longer life span, but we can never know what that would be.."

I would question the statement that birds that get banded but never get re-encountered would "obviously have longer life span".
Bands that are never recovered are on birds that die from predators, disease, accidents, hunter-crippled, etc. They could very well die the day after being banded; they would not necessarily live longer lives than birds who had recovered bands. There is nothing that would ensure a longer life for non-recovered birds than for other (banded or not) birds, the only difference is that their bands are not recovered.

If, as I believe and as the USGS states, the majority of ducks never make it past the first six months of life, and the majority of those ducks that do make it past the first six months die within the next six months, then the average lifespan of a wild duck would be measured in months, not years.

 

[firebird]

I did a google search for "oldest banded duck killed" and turned up Bird Banding Laboratory-USGS which showed the oldest BANDED of the waterfowl species we hunt. Very interesting information.
But I would definitely agree with the others here-not very many ducks make it from birth through the following nesting season.