47-739: See text Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae . Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans 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 birds , 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, grebes , gallinules and coots . The word duck comes from Old English dūce 'diver',
94-406: A characteristic upperwing coloration in flight: the tertiary remiges form a green speculum , the secondaries and primaries are black, and the coverts (forewing) are white. Their diet consists of small shore animals ( winkles , crabs etc.) as well as grasses and other plants. They were originally known as " sheldrakes ", which remained the most common name until the late 19th century. The word
141-409: A considerable number of mainly Late Cretaceous and Paleogene fossils have been described where it is uncertain whether or not they are anseriforms. This is because almost all orders of aquatic birds living today either originated or underwent a major radiation during that time, making it hard to decide whether some waterbird-like bone belongs into this family or is the product of parallel evolution in
188-569: A derivative of the verb * dūcan '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 duiken and German tauchen 'to dive'. This word replaced Old English ened / ænid 'duck', possibly to avoid confusion with other words, such as ende 'end' with similar forms. Other Germanic languages still have similar words for duck , for example, Dutch eend , German Ente and Norwegian and . The word ened / ænid
235-1293: A different lineage due to adaptive pressures. Living Anseriformes based on the work by John Boyd. Anhima [REDACTED] Chauna [REDACTED] Anseranas [REDACTED] Dendrocygna [REDACTED] Thalassornis [REDACTED] Plectropterus [REDACTED] Stictonetta Nettapus [REDACTED] Biziura [REDACTED] Heteronetta [REDACTED] Nomonyx Oxyura [REDACTED] Malacorhynchus [REDACTED] Coscoroba Cereopsis [REDACTED] Sthenelides [REDACTED] Cygnus [REDACTED] Branta [REDACTED] Anser [REDACTED] Merganetta [REDACTED] Chloephaga [REDACTED] Oressochen Neochen [REDACTED] Radjah [REDACTED] Tadorna [REDACTED] Alopochen [REDACTED] Histrionicus † Camptorhynchus [REDACTED] Clangula [REDACTED] Polysticta [REDACTED] Somateria [REDACTED] Melanitta [REDACTED] Bucephala [REDACTED] Mergellus [REDACTED] Shelduck T. ferruginea T. cana T. tadornoides T. variegata T. cristata T. tadorna see text The shelducks , most species of which are found in
282-448: 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 . 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
329-548: A few eggs hatch after the mother has abandoned the nest and led her ducklings to water. Female mallard ducks (as well as several other species in the genus Anas , such as the American and Pacific black ducks , spot-billed duck , northern pintail 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
376-489: A range of calls , including whistles, cooing, yodels and grunts. For example, the scaup – 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
423-407: A squirming frog. To avoid injury when digging into sediment it has no cere , but the nostrils come out through hard horn. The Guardian published an article advising that ducks should not be fed with bread because it damages the health of the ducks and pollutes waterways. Ducks generally only have one partner at a time , although the partnership usually only lasts one year. Larger species and
470-516: A tribe (Dendrocygnini) in the subfamily Anatinae or the subfamily Anserinae, or to their own subfamily (Dendrocygninae) or family (Dendrocyganidae). The freckled duck 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
517-451: 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
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#1732766110338564-402: 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 of New Zealand , 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
611-408: 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 includes over 170 species of waterfowl, among them the ducks , geese , and swans . Most modern species in the order are highly adapted for an aquatic existence at
658-399: Is sometimes labelled as a duckling. A male is called a drake and the female is called a duck, or in ornithology a hen. 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 . Within the family, ducks are split into
705-545: Is still sometimes used to refer to a male shelduck and can also occasionally refer to the canvasback ( Aythya valisineria ) of North America. The genus Tadorna was introduced by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1822. The type species is the common shelduck . The genus name comes from the French name Tadorne for the common shelduck. It may originally derive from Celtic roots meaning "pied waterfowl", essentially
752-518: 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 by being trapped using duck decoys . Because an idle floating duck or
799-577: The Galliformes ( pheasants , etc.) belong to a common group, the Galloanserae . They are the most primitive neognathous birds, and as such they should follow the palaeognathae ( ratites and tinamous ) in bird classification systems. Several unusual extinct families of birds like the albatross-like pseudotooth birds and the giant flightless gastornithids and mihirungs have been found to be stem-anseriforms based on common features found in
846-725: The Galápagos Islands , where they are often vagrants and less often residents . A handful are endemic 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. Ducks eat food sources such as grasses , aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians, worms, and small molluscs . Dabbling ducks feed on
893-574: 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 . 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 , crocodilians , predatory testudines such as
940-493: 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
987-476: The galliformes . These two groups only occupied two ecological niches during the Mesozoic, living in water and on the ground, while the toothed enantiornithes were the dominant birds that ruled the trees and air. The asteroid that ended the Mesozoic destroyed all trees as well as animals in the open, a condition that took centuries to recover from. The anseriformes and galliformes are thought to have survived in
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#17327661103381034-415: The steamer ducks 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
1081-460: The Egyptian goose were found to be poorly resolved by mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data; this genus may thus be paraphyletic . The Radjah sheduck, formerly placed in the genus Tadorna , is now placed in its own monotypic genus: Fossil bones from Dorkovo ( Bulgaria ) described as Balcanas pliocaenica may actually belong to this genus. They have even been proposed to be referable to
1128-561: 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. 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 inhabitants of
1175-428: The best-known examples of sexually antagonistic genital coevolution in vertebrates, causing genital adaptations to coevolve in each sex to advance control over mating and fertilization. Sexually antagonistic coevolution (or SAC) occurs as a consequence of sexual conflict between males and females, resulting in coevolutionary process that reduce fit, or that functions to decrease ease of having sex. The Anseriformes and
1222-532: The coat of arms of Lubāna ( Latvia ) and the coat of arms of Föglö ( Åland ). 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
1269-731: The common shelduck, but their Early Pliocene age makes this rather unlikely. Based on the Taxonomy in Flux from John Boyd's website. Radjah radjah (Lesson 1828) Reichenbach 1852 (Radjah shelduck) Alopochen Stejneger 1885 ?† T. cristata (Kuroda 1917) (Crested shelduck) T. tadorna (Linnaeus 1758) (Common shelduck) T. cana (Gmelin 1789) (South African shelduck) T. ferruginea (Pallas 1764) (Ruddy shelduck) T. tadornoides (Jardine & Selby 1828) (Australian shelduck) T. variegata (Gmelin 1789) (Paradise shelduck) The following table
1316-684: The cover of burrows and water, and not to have needed trees for food and reproduction. The earliest known stem anseriform is the presbyornithid Teviornis from the Nemegt Formation of Mongolia . Some members apparently surviving the KT extinction event , including presbyornithids , thought to be the common ancestors of ducks, geese, swans, and screamers , the last group once thought to be galliformes, but now genetically confirmed to be closely related to geese. The first known duck fossils start to appear about 34 million years ago. Waterfowl are
1363-533: The dabbling ducks or shelducks, is not fully resolved. See the Anatidae article for more information, and for alternate taxonomic approaches. Anatidae is traditionally divided into subfamilies Anatinae and Anserinae. The Anatinae consists of tribes Anatini , Aythyini , Mergini and Tadornini . The higher-order classification below follows a phylogenetic analysis performed by Mikko's Phylogeny Archive and John Boyd's website. Unassigned Anatidae: In addition,
1410-469: 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
1457-607: The duck being described as a fierce fighter. This led to the duck becoming the nickname and mascot for the eventual National Hockey League 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 team. Waterfowl Anseriformes
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1504-534: The female. Female ducks have evolved to have a corkscrew shaped vagina to prevent rape. 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 and
1551-402: The geese and swans. The body shape of diving ducks varies somewhat from this in being more rounded. The bill 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
1598-746: The genus Tadorna (except for the Radjah shelduck , which is now found in its own monotypic genus Radjah ), are a group of large birds in the Tadorninae subfamily of the Anatidae , the biological family that includes the ducks and most duck-like waterfowl such as the geese and swans . Shelducks are a group of large, often semi-terrestrial waterfowl, which can be seen as intermediate between geese ( Anserinae ) and ducks . They are mid-sized (some 50–60 cm) Old World waterfowl. The sexes are colored slightly differently in most species, and all have
1645-514: 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 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
1692-616: 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 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
1739-459: The many ducks in fiction , many are cartoon characters, such as Walt Disney '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
1786-401: 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. The overall body plan of ducks is elongated and broad, and they are also relatively long-necked, albeit not as long-necked as
1833-708: 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 /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 ) 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
1880-474: 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
1927-734: The same as the English "shelduck". A group of them is called a "dopping," taken from the Harley Manuscript . The namesake genus of the Tadorninae, Tadorna is very close to the Egyptian goose and its extinct relatives from the Madagascar region, Alopochen . While the classical shelducks form a group that is obviously monophyletic , the interrelationships of these, the aberrant common and especially Radjah sheducks, and
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1974-693: The skull region, beak physiology and pelvic region. The genus Vegavis for a while was found to be the earliest member of the anseriform crown group but a recent 2017 paper has found it to be just outside the crown group in the family Vegaviidae . Below is the general consensus of the phylogeny of anseriforms and their stem relatives. † Pelagornithidae (pseudo-tooth birds) [REDACTED] † Gastornithidae [REDACTED] † Dromornithidae (mihirungs) [REDACTED] † Vegaviidae Anseriformes (screamers and waterfowl) [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Anatidae systematics, especially regarding placement of some "odd" genera in
2021-430: 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,
2068-458: 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 ducks are assigned either to
2115-565: 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 1 kg (2.2 lb). Ducks appear on several coats of arms , including
2162-514: The water surface. With the exception of screamers, males have penises , a trait that has been lost in the Neoaves . Due to their aquatic nature, most species are web-footed. Anseriformes are one of only two types of modern bird to be confirmed present during the Mesozoic alongside the other dinosaurs, and in fact were among the very few birds to survive their extinction, along with their cousins
2209-405: Was inherited from Proto-Indo-European ; cf. Latin anas "duck", Lithuanian ántis 'duck', Ancient Greek νῆσσα / νῆττα ( nēssa / nētta ) 'duck', and Sanskrit ātí '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,
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