The mallard duck is the worlds most common, most numerous, and best known duck.  As well as being a very sporting duck and a very tasty one, it is the common ancestor from which almost all our domesticated ducks have been derived.  It can be one of the wildest and most wary of ducks and is also the most easily tamed.  Every city park with a pond or lake has its resident mallards.  Although most mallards migrate long distances, some stay in one area.  Today, as more farm ponds are built, as shooting becomes more restricted in many areas, and more people take an interest in wildlife and provide food for them, more mallards are remaining as year-round residents in areas they only frequented before during the winter months.