For four years, a mallard has nested behind a bush near the front door of Caitlin Deal’s home in a Minneapolis-St. Paul suburb, offering an up-close glimpse of nature for her young son and lessons for how people can coexist with wildlife .

The duck, dubbed Martha by the family, sits on her nest for about a month every spring in the tree-lined neighborhood of Eagan, Minnesota. After her eggs hatch around Mother’s Day , the birds toddle away.

“It feels nice that she trusts that area, that she trusts us to be able to come back year after year,” said Deal, whose four-year-old son Owen’s first word was “Duck.”

A female mallard duck sits on eggs in her nest tucked next to the front door of a home in Eagan, Minnesota, on April 26, 2026. AP

Spring is when wildlife — everything from birds to deer to alligators — bear their young , often in locations more suitable to humans than animals .…