duck¹

 

common name for wild and domestic waterfowl of the family Anatidae, which also includes geese and swans. It is hunted and bred for its meat, eggs, and feathers. Strictly speaking, duck refers to the female and drake to the male. Ducks are usually divided into three groups: the surface-feeding ducks—such as the mallard, wood duck, black duck, and teal—which frequent ponds, marshes, and other quiet waters; the diving ducks—such as the canvasback, scaup, scoter, eider, and redhead—found on bays, rivers, and lakes; and the fish-eating ducks, the mergansers, with slender, serrated bills, which also prefer open water. The surface feeders take wing straight up, while the divers patter along the water's surface in taking off. Ducks make long migratory flights. At the time of the postnuptial molt, the power of flight is temporarily lost, and most of the Northern Hemisphere drakes assume “eclipse” plumage similar to that of the female. The ancestor of all domestic breeds (see poultry), except the Muscovy of South American origin, is the mallard, Anas boscas, which is found in Europe, Asia, and North America. In the mallard drake a white ring separates the bright-green head and neck from the chestnut breast, the back is grayish brown, the tail white, and the wings have blue patches. The wood duck, Aix sponsa, smaller than the mallard, nests in hollow trees; the drake is a varicolored, iridescent ornament to lakes and ponds. The blue-winged, green-winged, and European teals (genus Querquedula) are small ducks that fly with great speed. The canvasback, Fuligula vallisneria, is hunted widely for its palatable flesh. It has a chestnut head and neck, black bill and chest, and whitish back and underparts. A swift flier, it is also an expert swimmer and diver. It breeds from the Dakotas and Minnesota north and winters on the coastal waters along the entire continent. In northern countries a portion of the down with which the eider ducks line their nests is systematically collected, as are some of the eggs; since the eiders lay throughout the season, these are soon replaced. The mergansers, genus Mergus, also called sheldrakes or sawbills, are usually crested. They include the goosander and the smaller red-breasted merganser, both circumpolar in distribution, and the North American hooded merganser, similar to the Old World smew. Because their fish diet gives their flesh a rank taste, they are called by sportsmen “trash ducks.” Ducks are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Aves, order Anseriformes, family Anatidae.

For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation).

Ducks
A duck (female) and drake (male) Mallard
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Anseriformes Family: Anatidae
Subfamilies
Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae

Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water.

Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians[1], worms, and small molluscs.

Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots.

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.

Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain.

Types of ducks, and feeding

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.

Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. ^[1] They have along the inside of the beak tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside.

A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish.

In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat.

Breeding

The males (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.

Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively.

Predators

A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles.

Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks.

Etymology

The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dūce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed *dūcan) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive").

This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek νησσα, νηττα (nēssa, nētta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end".

Hunting, domestication, and urbanization

In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target".

Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck ^[2]. Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole.

Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese.

In a wildlife pond, the bottom over most of the area should be too deep for dabbling wild ducks to reach the bottom, to protect bottom-living life from being constantly disturbed and eaten by wild ducks dredging, and domestic ducks should not be allowed in.^{[citation needed]}

Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", whence its name.

A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo^[3], however this has been shown to be false.

Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard.

FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries.

Humor

In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts 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 because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article [2] mentioning humor in the word "duck").

In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic.

in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up".

"Quacks like a duck"

See also: Duck test

The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be.

The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack")

Miscellaneous

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head.^[4]
• In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. [3] The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. [4]
• A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. [5]
• The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature.^[5] They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. ^[6]

Gallery

A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring	A Domesticated duck	Some domesticated ducks	A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard
African Comb Duck	Mallard drake	Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae	Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage
Female Mallard	Female Mallard with ducklings	Male Muscovy Duck	Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England.
Ducks in a pond	Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK	Indian Runner Duck	Ringed Teal
Red-crested Pochard	Male Muscovy Duck

See also

• Duck crossing
• Duck hunting
• Ducks Unlimited
• Domesticated duck — ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down
• Duck pond
• List of fictional ducks
• Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks.

References

External links

• www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes
• "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com)
• Guide to keeping ducks
• Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection
• Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline
• Duck migration question
• Ducks Unlimited Conservation
• Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans
• Tufted duck (good for foreign names)
• list of books (useful looking abstracts)
• San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population
• Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild)
• Ducks at a Distance, by Rob Hines, available at Project Gutenberg. - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl.
• Duck Stock Photoseml:Anàdrands-nl:Entebat-smg:Pīlė

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