Can you help scientists solve duck mystery?

Birdwatchers and nature lovers from across the UK are needed to help scientists discover why the numbers of Mallard ducks are declining.

Researchers from the University of Essex need help from birders, families, walkers, and landowners to take photos of  broods in the wild.

It builds on last year’s successful #EssexDucks citizen science project and now expands to cover the whole of Britain.

It is hoped that with volunteers’ help the University of Essex will find out why and where the country’s population has dropped.

Studies show UK mallard breeding numbers have declined around by 8 per cent and the winter population has fallen 18 per cent since 2012.

School of Life Sciences PhD student Hannah Coburn is leading the research and hopes the public can help her build large data sets across Essex, England, and the UK.

Hannah said: “Despite being our most common duck in the UK, mallards have been the focus of very little research here in recent decades.

“Investigating the rate of ducklings that survive to adulthood will give us a better understanding of what drives changes in our mallard population, as has been found elsewhere in the world.

“We are asking the public to help us collect data on mallard broods across the country.

“We are particularly interested in repeated sightings of broods, so keep a look out for ducklings that you see regularly in the same spot.”

Volunteers can head to beauty spots, wetlands, the bottom of their farm, city centre ponds and local parks to look for the birds.

How to take part

To take part simply head to the project website.

Once there enter key details including where and when the broods were spotted, how many ducklings there were, and roughly how old they were.

To get in touch with Hannah and the #Essexducks project email here.

#Essexducks is a PhD project funded by the Natural Environment Research Council and ARIES Doctoral Training Partnership.

It is a collaboration between the University of Essex, University of East Anglia, British Association for Shooting and Conservation, Essex and Suffolk Water and Adonis Blue Ecological Consultants - with additional partnerships with the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust and British Trust for Ornithology.