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:''For duck as a food, see ]; for other meanings, see ]''.
<(')

( > )>
{{Taxobox
YY
| color = pink
| name = Ducks
| image = Ducks in plymouth, massachusetts.jpg
| image_width = 250px
| image_caption = A duck (female) and drake (male) ]
| regnum = ]ia
| phylum = ]
| classis = ]
| ordo = ]
| familia = ]
| subdivision_ranks = Subfamilies
| subdivision =
]<br/>
]<br/>
]<br/>
]<br/>
]
}}
'''Duck''' is the common name for a number of species in the ] family of ]s. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the ] article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the ]s and ], and may be found in both ] and ].

Most ducks have a wide flat ] adapted for ]. They exploit a variety of food sources such as ]es, ]s, ], ]s, small ]s, ]s, and small ]s.

Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated ] with similar forms, such as ]s or divers, ]s, ]s, and ]s.

Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while ]ing; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes ].

Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic ], are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in ] where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. {{Fact|date=December 2007}}

==Types of ducks, and feeding==
]s and ]s 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.

]s feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. <ref>
{{cite web
| last = Ogden
| first = Evans
| title = Dabbling Ducks
| publisher = CWE
| url = http://www.sfu.ca/biology/wildberg/species/dabbducks.html
| accessdate = 2006-11-02 }}
</ref> Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called ] like a whale's ]. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside.

A few specialized species such as the ], ], and the ]s are adapted to catch large fish.

In the ] 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.<!-- personal observation-->

==Breeding==
The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant ], but that is ]ed in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less ].

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 ], ]ns, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as ]s. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by ]s (e.g. ]es) and large birds, including ]s and ]s.

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

==Etymology==
The word '''duck''' (from ] ''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 ] group feed by upending (compare ] ''duiken'', ] ''tauchen'' = "to dive").

This happened because the older ] 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 ]: compare ] ''anas'' (] ''anat-'') = "duck", ] ''antis'' = "duck", ] νησσα, νηττα (''nēssa'', ''nētta'') = "duck"; ] ''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 ], or formerly by ]s. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target".

Ducks have many economic uses, being ]ed for their ], ]s, ]s, (particularly their ]). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All ] are descended from the wild ] ''Anas platyrhynchos'', except the ] <ref>
{{cite web
| last =
| title = Mallard - Nature Notes
| publisher = Ducks Unlimited Canada
| url = http://www.ducks.ca/resource/general/naturenotes/mallard.html
| accessdate = 2006-11-02 }}
</ref>. 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 ] ] ''Rana temporaria'' whole.

] is often made using the ] of domestic ducks, rather than of ].

Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female ]s and ]s do not "quack"; for example, the ] makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from.

A common ] says that quacks do not echo<ref>
{{cite web
| last = Amos
| first = Jonathan
| title = Sound science is quackers
| publisher = BBC News
| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3086890.stm
| accessdate = 2006-11-02 }}
</ref>, however this has been ].

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 ] operation (e.g. by the ]) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed ].

] reports that ] is the top duck market in 2004 followed by ] and other ]n countries.

==Humor==
In ], ] ] and ]s at the ] (]) finished a year-long ] ], concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most ] and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a ] involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an ] in many ] because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ], many are silly ] characters like ] (see the '']'' article mentioning humor in the word "duck").

In ] 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"==
{{seealso|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 ]ial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be.

The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see ]) 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 ]). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by ] or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to ]. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack")
] Lima, Peru.]]

==Miscellaneous==
{{Trivia|date=September 2007}}
*Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the ] with ornamental ]s shaped like a duck's head.<ref>
{{cite web
| last = Cornelius
| first =
| title = The Battle of the Nile
| publisher = The South African Military History Society
| url = http://rapidttp.com/milhist/vol074ic.html
| accessdate = 2006-11-02 }}
</ref>
*In 2007, a duck in ] survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived.
*A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of ]. <!-- 404 -->
*The ] people of ancient ] worshipped nature.<ref> Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972</ref> They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. <ref>Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. ''The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the ].'' New York: ], 1997.</ref>

==Gallery==
{{cleanup-gallery}}
<gallery>
Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg|A ] stretching its wings in a ]
Image:Duck head.JPG|A ]
Image:Brown Ducks.JPG|Some domesticated ducks
Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg|A Female Mallard with a duckling ]
Image:Comb duck.jpg|African ]
Image:duck-on-ground.jpg|] drake
Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg|] - not a true duck but a member of the ]
Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg|Male ] in eclipse plumage
Image:Female Mallard.jpg|Female Mallard
Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg|Female Mallard with ducklings
Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg|Male ]
Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg|] at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England.
Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG|Ducks in a pond
Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg|Ducks and geese in a yard in ], UK
Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg|]
Image:Ringed teal.gif|]
Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg |]
Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg| Male ]
Image:Duck 3a.jpg
<!-- Deleted image removed: Image:101335214 76c587ec78.jpg| Mallard drake swimming -->

</gallery>

==See also==
{{wiktionarypar|duck}}
*]
*]
*]
*] — ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down
*]
*]
*] - A disease common in ducks.

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
{{Commons|Duck}}
{{cookbook}}
* 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes
* (from ])
*
* on the Internet Bird Collection
*
*
*
*
* (good for foreign names)
* (useful looking abstracts)
*
* (]s' impact on ]s by ] in the wild)
*{{gutenberg|no=18884|name=Ducks at a Distance, by Rob Hines}} - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl.
*

* Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers
* - information on duck production, breeding & health

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Revision as of 18:50, 19 December 2007

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, 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. Along the inside of the beak they have 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

File:2004duck.PNG
Duck headcount in 2004

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 . 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.

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

A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo, 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 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")

Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru.

Miscellaneous

This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. Please relocate any relevant information into other sections or articles. (September 2007)
  • Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head.
  • In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived.
  • A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia.
  • The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art.

Gallery

This section contains an unencyclopedic or excessive gallery of images. Please help improve the section by removing excessive or indiscriminate images or by moving relevant images beside adjacent text, in accordance with the Manual of Style on use of images. (Learn how and when to remove this message)

See also

References

  1. Ogden, Evans. "Dabbling Ducks". CWE. Retrieved 2006-11-02.
  2. "Mallard - Nature Notes". Ducks Unlimited Canada. Retrieved 2006-11-02.
  3. Amos, Jonathan. "Sound science is quackers". BBC News. Retrieved 2006-11-02.
  4. Cornelius. "The Battle of the Nile". The South African Military History Society. Retrieved 2006-11-02.
  5. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972
  6. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo Arqueológico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997.

External links

Categories: