Ducks, Mallards, Breeding and Feeding

Please find here some interesting Duck facts

Terms Used

Naming

A male duck is called a drake, a female is called a duck or a hen. Babies are called ducklings

Ducks are related to geese and swans.

Interesting Duck Facts

Dabbling ducks tip themselves face first into the water, (you would see their tail pointing into the air), and filter water through their beaks to harvest food from beneath the surface. This is called “dabbling.”

The gland that secretes the substance that coats their feathers and makes them waterproof is located at the tail end of their back, hence the saying “like water off a duck’s back”

Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting, moulting normally precedes migration.

Feeding

Most ducks are foragers and prefer a variety of foods such as grasses, fish, insects, small amphibians, aquatic plants, small molluscs, and worms.

Diving ducks and sea ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks to enable them to forage deeper underwater, they 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. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae. 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 and swallow large fish.