Duck is the common name for numerous species of
waterfowl
Anseriformes is an order of birds also known as waterfowl that comprises about 180 living species of birds in three families: Anhimidae (three species of screamers), Anseranatidae (the magpie goose), and Anatidae, the largest family, which ...
in the
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
Anatidae
The Anatidae are the biological family of water birds that includes ducks, geese, and swans. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on all the world's continents except Antarctica. These birds are adapted for swimming, flo ...
. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than
swan
Swans are birds of the family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Som ...
s and
geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a
form taxon; they do not represent a
monophyletic group (the group of all descendants of a single common ancestral species), since swans and geese are not considered ducks. Ducks are mostly
aquatic bird
A water bird, alternatively waterbird or aquatic bird, is a bird that lives on or around water. In some definitions, the term ''water bird'' is especially applied to birds in freshwater ecosystems, although others make no distinction from seab ...
s, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water.
Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as
loons or divers,
grebe
Grebes () are aquatic diving birds in the order Podicipediformes . Grebes are widely distributed freshwater birds, with some species also found in marine habitats during migration and winter. Some flightless species exist as well, most notably ...
s,
gallinules and
coot
Coots are medium-sized water birds that are members of the rail family, Rallidae. They constitute the genus ''Fulica'', the name being the Latin term for "coot". Coots have predominantly black plumage, and—unlike many rails—they are usually ...
s.
Etymology
The word ''duck'' comes from
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...
'diver', a derivative of the verb 'to duck, bend down low as if to get under something, or dive', because of the way many species in the
dabbling duck group feed by upending; compare with
Dutch and
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
'to dive'.
This word replaced Old English / 'duck', possibly to avoid confusion with other words, like 'end' with similar forms. Other Germanic languages still have similar words for ''duck'', for example, Dutch , German and
Norwegian . The word / was inherited from
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo ...
;
cf. Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
''anas'' "duck",
Lithuanian 'duck',
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...
/ (/) 'duck', and
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...
'water bird', among others.
A duckling is a young duck in downy plumage or baby duck, but in the food trade a young domestic duck which has just reached adult size and bulk and its meat is still fully tender, is sometimes labelled as a duckling.
A male is called a
drake
Drake may refer to:
Animals
* A male duck
People and fictional characters
* Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name
* Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name ...
and the female is called a duck, or in
ornithology
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and t ...
a hen.
Taxonomy
All ducks belong to the
biological order Anseriformes, a group that contains the ducks, geese and swans, as well as the
screamers, and the
magpie goose. All except the screamers belong to the
biological family Anatidae
The Anatidae are the biological family of water birds that includes ducks, geese, and swans. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on all the world's continents except Antarctica. These birds are adapted for swimming, flo ...
. Within the family, ducks are split into a variety of subfamilies and 'tribes'. The number and composition of these subfamilies and tribes is the cause of considerable disagreement among taxonomists. Some base their decisions on
morphological characteristics, others on shared behaviours or genetic studies. The number of suggested subfamilies containing ducks ranges from two to five. The significant level of
hybridisation that occurs among wild ducks complicates efforts to tease apart the relationships between various species.
In most modern classifications, the so-called 'true ducks' belong to the subfamily Anatinae, which is further split into a varying number of tribes. The largest of these, the Anatini, contains the 'dabbling' or 'river' ducks – named for their method of feeding primarily at the surface of fresh water. The 'diving ducks', also named for their primary feeding method, make up the tribe Aythyini. The 'sea ducks' of the tribe Mergini are diving ducks which specialise on fish and shellfish and spend a majority of their lives in saltwater. The tribe Oxyurini contains the 'stifftails', diving ducks notable for their small size and stiff, upright tails.
A number of other species called ducks are not considered to be 'true ducks', and are typically placed in other subfamilies or tribes. The
whistling duck
The whistling ducks or tree ducks are a subfamily, Dendrocygninae, of the duck, goose and swan family of birds, Anatidae. In other taxonomic schemes, they are considered a separate family, Dendrocygnidae. Some taxonomists list only one genus ...
s are assigned either to a tribe (Dendrocygnini) in the subfamily Anatinae or the subfamily Anserinae, or to their own subfamily (Dendrocygninae) or family (Dendrocyganidae). The
freckled duck
The freckled duck (''Stictonetta naevosa)'' is a waterfowl species endemic to Australia. The freckled duck has also been referred to as the monkey duck or oatmeal duck. These birds are usually present in mainland Australia, but disperse to coas ...
of Australia is either the sole member of the tribe Stictonettini in the subfamily Anserinae, or in its own family, the Stictonettinae. The
shelducks make up the tribe Tadornini in the family Anserinae in some classifications, and their own subfamily, Tadorninae, in others, while the
steamer duck
The steamer ducks are a genus (''Tachyeres'') of ducks in the family Anatidae. All of the four species occur at the southern cone of South America in Chile and Argentina, and all except the flying steamer duck are flightless; even this one speci ...
s are either placed in the family Anserinae in the tribe Tachyerini or lumped with the shelducks in the tribe Tadorini. The
perching ducks make up in the tribe Cairinini in the subfamily Anserinae in some classifications, while that tribe is eliminated in other classifications and its members assigned to the tribe Anatini. The
torrent duck is generally included in the subfamily Anserinae in the monotypic tribe Merganettini, but is sometimes included in the tribe Tadornini. The
pink-eared duck is sometimes included as a true duck either in the tribe Anatini or the tribe Malacorhynchini, and other times is included with the shelducks in the tribe Tadornini.
Morphology
The overall body plan of ducks is elongated and broad, and they are also relatively long-necked, albeit not as long-necked as the geese and swans. The body shape of diving ducks varies somewhat from this in being more rounded. The
bill
Bill(s) may refer to:
Common meanings
* Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States)
* Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature
* Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer
* Bill, a bird or animal's beak
Pla ...
is usually broad and contains serrated
pectens, which are particularly well defined in the filter-feeding species. In the case of some fishing species the bill is long and strongly serrated. The scaled legs are strong and well developed, and generally set far back on the body, more so in the highly aquatic species. The wings are very strong and are generally short and pointed, and the
flight of ducks requires fast continuous strokes, requiring in turn strong wing muscles. Three species of
steamer duck
The steamer ducks are a genus (''Tachyeres'') of ducks in the family Anatidae. All of the four species occur at the southern cone of South America in Chile and Argentina, and all except the flying steamer duck are flightless; even this one speci ...
are almost flightless, however. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while
moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes
migration.
The drakes of northern species often have extravagant
plumage, but that is
moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less
sexual dimorphism, although there are exceptions such as the
paradise shelduck
The paradise shelduck (''Tadorna variegata''), also known as the paradise duck, or in Māori, is a species of shelduck, a group of goose-like ducks, which is endemic to New Zealand. Johann Friedrich Gmelin placed it in the genus ''Anas'' with ...
of
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...
, which is both strikingly sexually dimorphic and in which the female's plumage is brighter than that of the male. The plumage of juvenile birds generally resembles that of the female. Female ducks have evolved to have a corkscrew shaped vagina to prevent rape.
Distribution and habitat
Ducks have a
cosmopolitan distribution, and are found on every continent except Antarctica. Several species manage to live on subantarctic islands, including
South Georgia and the
Auckland Islands. Ducks have reached a number of isolated oceanic islands, including the
Hawaiian Islands,
Micronesia
Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: the Philippines to the west, Polynesia to the east, ...
and the
Galápagos Islands
The Galápagos Islands ( Spanish: , , ) are an archipelago of volcanic islands. They are distributed on each side of the equator in the Pacific Ocean, surrounding the centre of the Western Hemisphere, and are part of the Republic of Ecuad ...
, where they are often and less often . A handful are
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
to such far-flung islands.
Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain.
Behaviour
Feeding
Ducks eat food sources such as
grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians, worms, and small
molluscs.
Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the edge of the bill, there is a comb-like structure called a
pecten. This strains the water squirting from the side of the bill and traps any food. The pecten is also used to preen feathers and to hold slippery food items.
Diving ducks and
sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly.
A few specialized species such as the
mergansers are adapted to catch and swallow large fish.
The others have the characteristic wide flat bill adapted to
dredging-type jobs such as pulling up waterweed, pulling worms and small molluscs out of mud, searching for insect larvae, and bulk jobs such as dredging out, holding, turning head first, and swallowing a squirming frog. To avoid injury when digging into sediment it has no
cere, but the nostrils come out through hard horn.
''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
'' published an article advising that ducks should not be fed with bread because it
damages the health of the ducks and pollutes waterways.
Breeding
Ducks generally
only have one partner at a time, although the partnership usually only lasts one year. Larger species and the more sedentary species (like fast-river specialists) tend to have pair-bonds that last numerous years. Most duck species breed once a year, choosing to do so in favourable conditions (
spring
Spring(s) may refer to:
Common uses
* Spring (season), a season of the year
* Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy
* Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water
* Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a h ...
/summer or wet seasons). Ducks also tend to make a
nest before breeding, and, after hatching, lead their ducklings to water. Mother ducks are very caring and protective of their young, but may abandon some of their ducklings if they are physically stuck in an area they cannot get out of (such as nesting in an enclosed
courtyard
A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky.
Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary ...
) or are not prospering due to genetic defects or sickness brought about by hypothermia, starvation, or disease. Ducklings can also be orphaned by inconsistent late hatching where a few eggs hatch after the mother has abandoned the nest and led her ducklings to water.
Communication
Female
mallard ducks (as well as several other species in the genus ''Anas'', such as the
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
and
Pacific black ducks,
spot-billed duck
The Indian spot-billed duck (''Anas poecilorhyncha'') is a large dabbling duck that is a non-migratory breeding duck throughout freshwater wetlands in the Indian subcontinent. The name is derived from the red spot at the base of the bill that is ...
,
northern pintail
The pintail or northern pintail (''Anas acuta'') is a duck species with wide geographic distribution that breeds in the northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic and North America. It is migratory and winters south of its breeding ...
and
common teal) make the classic "quack" sound while males make a similar but raspier sound that is sometimes written as "breeeeze", but, despite widespread misconceptions, most species of duck do not "quack". In general, ducks make a range of
calls
Call or Calls may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Games
* Call, a type of betting in poker
* Call, in the game of contract bridge, a bid, pass, double, or redouble in the bidding stage
Music and dance
* Call (band), from Lahore, Pak ...
, including whistles, cooing, yodels and grunts. For example, the
scaup
Scaup is the common name for three species of diving duck:
* Greater scaup, or just "scaup", ''Aythya marila''
* Lesser scaup
The lesser scaup (''Aythya affinis'') is a small North American diving duck that migrates south as far as Central Ameri ...
– which are
diving ducks – make a noise like "scaup" (hence their name). Calls may be loud displaying calls or quieter contact calls.
A common
urban legend claims that duck quacks do not echo; however, this has been proven to be false. This myth was first debunked by the Acoustics Research Centre at the
University of Salford in 2003 as part of the
British Association's Festival of Science. It was also debunked in
one of the earlier episodes of the popular Discovery Channel television show ''
MythBusters''.
Predators
Ducks have many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for predatory birds but also for large fish like
pike,
crocodilia
Crocodilia (or Crocodylia, both ) is an order of mostly large, predatory, semiaquatic reptiles, known as crocodilians. They first appeared 95 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous period ( Cenomanian stage) and are the closest livi ...
ns, predatory
testudines such as the
alligator snapping turtle, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as
herons. Ducks' nests are raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may be caught unaware on the nest by mammals, such as
foxes, or large birds, such as
hawks or
owls.
Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators including big fish such as the North American
muskie and the European
pike. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the
peregrine falcon, which uses its speed and strength to catch ducks.
Relationship with humans
Hunting
Humans have hunted ducks since prehistoric times. Excavations of
middens in California dating to 7800 - 6400
BP have turned up bones of ducks, including at least one now-extinct flightless species. Ducks were captured in "significant numbers" by
Holocene
The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...
inhabitants of the lower
Ohio River valley, suggesting they took advantage of the seasonal bounty provided by migrating waterfowl. Neolithic hunters in locations as far apart as the Caribbean, Scandinavia, Egypt, Switzerland, and China relied on ducks as a source of protein for some or all of the year. Archeological evidence shows that
Māori people
The Māori (, ) are the indigenous Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand (). Māori originated with settlers from East Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of canoe voyages between roughly 1320 and 1350. Over severa ...
in New Zealand hunted the flightless
Finsch's duck, possibly to extinction, though rat predation may also have contributed to its fate. A similar end awaited the
Chatham duck, a species with reduced flying capabilities which went extinct shortly after its island was colonised by Polynesian settlers. It is probable that duck eggs were gathered by Neolithic hunter-gathers as well, though hard evidence of this is uncommon.
In many areas, wild ducks (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by being trapped using
duck decoys. Because an idle floating duck or a duck squatting on land cannot react to fly or move quickly, "a sitting duck" has come to mean "an easy target". These ducks may be
contaminated by pollutants such as
PCBs.
Domestication
Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, and feathers (particularly their
down). Approximately 3 billion ducks are slaughtered each year for meat worldwide. They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. Almost all the varieties of domestic ducks are descended from the
mallard (''Anas platyrhynchos''), apart from the
Muscovy duck (''Cairina moschata''). The call duck is another example of a domestic duck breed. Its name comes from its original use established by hunters, as a decoy to attract wild mallards from the sky, into traps set for them on the ground. The call duck is the world's smallest domestic duck breed, as it weighs less than .
Heraldry
Ducks appear on several
coats of arms, including the coat of arms of
Lubāna (
Latvia) and the coat of arms of
Föglö (
Åland).
Cultural references
In 2002, psychologist
Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the
University of Hertfordshire,
UK, finished a year-long
LaughLab experiment, concluding that of all animals, ducks attract the most humor and silliness; he said, "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an
inherently funny word in many languages, possibly because ducks are seen as silly in their looks or behavior. Of the many
ducks in fiction, many are cartoon characters, such as
Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
's
Donald Duck, and
Warner Bros.'
Daffy Duck.
Howard the Duck started as a comic book character in 1973 and was made into a
movie in 1986.
The 1992 Disney film ''
The Mighty Ducks'', starring
Emilio Estevez, chose the duck as the mascot for the fictional youth hockey team who are protagonists of the movie, based on the duck being described as a fierce fighter. This led to the duck becoming the nickname and mascot for the eventual
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey sports league, league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranke ...
professional team of the
Anaheim Ducks, who were founded with the name the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. The duck is also the nickname of the
University of Oregon sports teams as well as the
Long Island Ducks minor league
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
team.
See also
*
Domestic duck
*
Duck as food
*
Duck test
*
Duck breeds
*
Fictional ducks
*
Rubber duck
Notes
Citations
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
list of books(useful looking abstracts)
* - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl
{{Authority control
Game birds
Articles containing video clips
Bird common names