A drake Mallard offers a dorsal view while in flight during my Better than Bosque workshop in New Mexico last December.
Migrating mallards have been clocked flying at 88.5 kilometres per hour (55 miles per hour), slightly faster than the average waterfowl. While they usually cruise at an altitude of less than 10,000 feet, they can get much higher. In 1962, a mallard was struck by a commercial airliner at 21,000 feet—a record altitude for a bird-aircraft collision at the time.