Duck

Dendrocygninae

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Oxyurinae

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Anatinae

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Merginae

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Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae bird family. The ducks are divided between several different 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 and salt water.

Related Topics:
Anatidae - Bird - Swan - Geese - Fresh - Salt water

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Ducks exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, grains and aquatic plants, fish, insects, and the like. The sound made by some female ducks is called a "quack"; a common (and false) urban legend is that quacks do not produce an echo.

Related Topics:
Grass - Grain - Aquatic plant - Fish - Insect - Urban legend

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The males (drakes) of northern species often have showy plumage, but this is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. In many species, moulting birds are temporarily flightless; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration.

Related Topics:
Plumage - Moult - Migration

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Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and arctic northern hemisphere, are migratory, but others are not. Some, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain.

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In many areas, wild ducks of various species are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "sitting duck" to mean "an easy target".

Related Topics:
Shooting - Decoy

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Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers and down feathers. Most domestic ducks were bred from the wild Mallard, Anas platyrhynchos, but many breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 12 inches or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog, Rana temporaria, whole.

Related Topics:
Farm - Meat - Egg - Feather - Down feathers - Domestic ducks - Mallard - Common Frog

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

Related Topics:
Loon - Grebe - Gallinule - Coot

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