The mandarin duck belongs to a small group of perching ducks with claws on their toes and the habit of nesting in tree cavities. Nest holes are commonly several metres up and can be considerably higher where suitable trees exist.
Ducklings hatch downy and mobile. The female leaves the cavity, calls from the ground or water below, and the brood climbs the cavity wall and drops. Their very low body mass, dense down, and small size give them a low terminal velocity and a high ratio of surface area to weight, so falls onto soft ground are usually survived without injury. The same behaviour is documented in the closely related North American wood duck.
A common misreading is that the mother carries or catches the young. She does not. Losses do occur, particularly on hard surfaces or where predators wait below, but the leap is the normal route out of the nest rather than an emergency.