Post Breeding - Annual Life Cycle

Post breeding is the period in the annual life cycle of a duck bracked by breeding and nesting. Mallards are required to find energy sources to fuel the activities of raising a brood, keeping themselves healthy and regrowing feathers during molt. These energy-expending activities take place during the post breeding period.

Scientist speculate that the reason for there being more drake (male) mallards than female's (hens) in the population is the result of the higher deaths that occur to hens during the post breeding period.

During the post breeding period ducks can experience nutritional stress. Nutritional stress is a situation where nutrients demanded by the body exceeds the amount of nutrients a duck is able to find and eat.

Protein nutrients are extremely important, especially amino acids, the building blocks of life. Perhaps waterfowl select specific foods high in proteins, like bugs, based solely on their nutritional value. The post breeding period coincides with the time of year when insects are most numerous