Duck short description for kids. Domestic birds: ducks. What does a duck eat

Mallard is probably the most famous and numerous of all types of ducks. Today it can be found in almost any city reservoir, both in summer and winter. Mallard is the largest of all wild ducks. The duck is omnivorous and easily adapts to the most different conditions life, which is why it is found on all continents with the exception of Antarctica. Let's get to know them better.

A bit of biology

Mallard (lat. Anas platyrhynchos) is a bird from the family of ducks (Anatidae) of the order Anseriformes. The most famous and widespread wild duck. The body length of the male is about 62 cm, the female is about 57 cm, the weight reaches 1-1.5 kg (in autumn, when the bird is fattened just before the flight, its weight can reach 2 kg). The head and neck of the male are green, the crop and chest are brownish-brown, the back and ventral side of the body are gray in color with thin transverse spots. The color of the female is brown with darker spots, the ventral side is brownish-gray with longitudinal streaks. On the wing of the male and female there is a blue-violet “mirror” (clearly visible in the photo below).

The mallard, like most other species of ducks, has a well-defined sexual dimorphism in plumage ( external differences between males and females), especially noticeable in winter and spring, when pairs form in ducks. In breeding plumage, the drake of the nominative subspecies has a shiny dark green head and neck, ending in a narrow white “collar” (the collar has a gap in the back of the neck), a brownish-gray back with small dark strokes, which in the back becomes darker, black-brown color, black rump, chocolate-brown chest and grayish belly with a transverse striated pattern. The wings are brownish-gray above with a bright blue-violet mirror with white borders, almost white below. The size of the mirror increases with the age of the bird. The tail has a black curl formed by the middle tail feathers. The remaining tail feathers are straight and light gray in color. In summer, after molting, the male becomes more similar to the female, losing contrast and instead acquiring patronizing black-brown tones. During this period, it can be distinguished from a duck by its chestnut (but not buffy) chest and yellow beak. The legs are orange-red with darker webs.

An adult female retains a single plumage pattern regardless of the season. Outwardly, it is not much different from the females of many other river ducks - all of them are united by a variegated combination of black, brown and red tones in the upper body. The undertail, undertail and uppertail are buffy or reddish-brown, with blurry dark brown spots. The chest has an ocher, straw color. Features- the same as the male, a shiny mirror on the wing, a dark stripe through the eye and the same light one above it. The legs are paler in comparison with the male - dirty or pale orange. Young birds, regardless of gender, are more similar to the female, differing from her in duller plumage and less spotting below.

Ducks in autumn, the differences between females and males are clearly visible

Ducks' paws never get cold, there are no nerves or blood vessels, so ducks can safely walk on snow and ice without feeling cold.
- The average life expectancy of this species is about 25 years. The bird's voice is no different from domestic breeds, as it is their distant ancestor.
- Mallards feed mainly on vegetation in their natural habitat. However, they also willingly feast on freshwater mollusks, toads, insects and fish caviar. At night, the birds go out into the fields, where they eat vegetable feed and grain.
- Birds feed by diving in a peculiar way. In the water of a duck, only the front part is immersed, and the tail and paws stick out above the surface.

A special delicacy for ducks is duckweed, which appears on stagnant ponds.
- The duck applies and distributes throughout its body a special grease, which is secreted by the coccygeal gland. Very warm fluff and subcutaneous fat do not allow cold to penetrate the duck's body.
- The duck makes a nest in the thickets of reeds, reeds, among deadwood, in a hole dug in the ground - if only it was safe. The duck plucks the fluff from its chest and insulates the nest.

Egg laying from mid-April to mid-May. The female lays one egg per day, usually in the evening. Incubation begins with the last egg, when the first eggs laid have a clearly visible germinal disc. Clutch size differs in different parts of the range, with slightly more eggs in the south. Eggs of a standard form, with a white shell with a greenish-olive tint. During incubation, the shade usually disappears. Incubation time is 22-29 days. All chicks hatch almost simultaneously - for no more than 10, less often - 14 hours. The eggs laid last go through their development cycle in a shorter period than the previous ones.
- 12 hours after hatching, the chicks can swim, as the female has already treated their down with fat, which protects it from getting wet. After that, the young can begin to feed in the reservoir, which follows the mother.

The duck reliably protects its offspring and takes good care of it. For 30 days, ducklings gain weight of 1 kg. 2 months after hatching, the young do not need care, and begin to live independently.
- Ducks (like geese) have a very unusual structure of the genitals. The penis of males is spiral-shaped and can reach the length of the entire body of the male. The shape of the ovaries in females is similar. Interestingly, it is the more sophisticated, the more complex the phallus of the drake.
- During molting, ducks lose almost all flight feathers and practically cannot fly.
- Adapting to specific conditions, mallards can spend their whole lives in one place, or they can, like their relatives in the order of anseriformes, make seasonal flights.
- The Greeks began to domesticate the mallard as early as the 5th century BC. e., and the Chinese - even earlier, and arranged a kind of incubators from baskets. Wild mallards are now easily domesticated, and can also produce common offspring with any domestic ducks.

Quack-quack - this is how duck speech sounds, in any case, every Russian has been sure of this since childhood. However, it turns out that the British hear onk-onk, the Hungarians - dudal-dudal; (it looks like the Swedes - tuta-tuta), Turks - wak-wak, Chinese tu-du, French - kuzn-kuen, Romanians - mak-mak. Well, according to ornithologists, ducks pronounce rab-rab-rab (in this case, the Danes have the most subtle hearing: they hear slave-slave-slave).
- Ducklings think of their mother as the first creature they see when they hatch from an egg. Therefore, at home, small ducklings can be slipped into the upbringing of a chicken.
- Ducks have more cervical vertebrae than giraffes, they are just very small and therefore the neck seems short.

The mallard flies well - the flight speed reaches 90 km / h. Sits on the water under acute angle. This allows her to descend even on a small island. Takeoff also does not require a lot of space, can rise almost vertically
- The duck's beak has a tactile ability. The upper part is covered with soft leather. Thanks to this, she is looking for food under water. But along with food, it swallows silt, dirt and a large amount of water. Therefore, inside the beak has many horny processes that work like a sieve. All excess duck pushes back with his tongue.
Everyone knows that under certain conditions any sound is reflected. This is due to the laws of physics. But duck quacking is not subject to these laws. Wherever this bird quacks, you will not hear an echo.

Few people know that only females are capable of quacking. Thus, they call the male representatives during mating and communicate with ducklings. It would be incorrect to say that males, which are called drakes, cannot quack. They make certain sounds, and sometimes quite loud, which are different from the quacking of females: they are more like hissing.
- Another feature regarding the structure of birds, which almost no one knows about, despite the fact that everyone has seen a duck at least once in their life. This bird has 3 centuries, each of which performs a specific function.
- There is an interesting historical fact relating to ducks. In 1916, there was a conflict between Ireland and Great Britain, which caused hostilities in these countries. They did not bypass Dublin, which was inhabited by a large number of wild ducks. The main place of their deployment was the central park. At a certain time, all hostilities ceased, and the park worker was engaged in feeding the birds.

English mallards lay more eggs than their counterparts living in other countries. This is probably the result of their spontaneous crossing with an improved breed of domestic ducks.
- It is believed that a blue mirror with a metallic sheen on the wing helps ducks recognize each other in flight.
- These ducks have a special curled tail feather. In some cases, 2 or 3 elements have this form at once. Is not decorative ornament and such a structure is not accidental. These feathers are different original form are always black in color. They clearly stand out against the background of other flight feathers, which are distinguished by a white color. They are directly involved in the maneuvers that birds perform while moving in the air and water.

Sometimes females choose drakes themselves. In this case, she swims around the gentleman and nods her head. In any case, the pair is removed from the common flock. After that, mating takes place.
- Duck test (English duck-test, sometimes duck-test) - a playful test for the obviousness of what is happening. Translated from English, it looks like: If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. The test implies that the essence of the phenomenon can be identified by typical outward signs. The expression is a tracing-paper from English and is common only in the USA and Great Britain.
- “One scientist, having bought 20 ducks, immediately ordered to cut one of them into small pieces, with which he fed the rest of the birds. A few minutes later, he did the same with the other duck, and so on, until there was one left, which, in this way, devoured 19 of her friends. This note was published in the newspaper by the Belgian humorist Cornelissen to mock the gullibility of the public. Since then, according to one version, false news is called "newspaper ducks."
- Make Way for the Ducks is a wonderful fairy tale written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey in 1941. The book was an unprecedented success. The authorities of Boston even erected a monument to the heroes of the fairy tale - Mrs. Mollard's mother duck and her ducklings - in the central park.

The mallard dives only when wounded and is able to swim tens of meters under water. She walks on the ground waddling, but when wounded she is able to run nimbly.
- Protecting her brood, the female tends to pretend to be injured in order to ward off uninvited guests.
- A mallard marked with a ring in 1981 was caught by hunters in 2008, that is, she lived for 27 years. However average duration The mallard's life according to banding data is 3-5 years and about 10 years in captivity.
- Mallards do not fly above 3,000 meters, but in 1962 an airplane and a mallard collided at 7,000 meters.
- Mallards have the largest range and the highest abundance among all duck species. About 11.6 million birds live in the USA alone. In Europe, the total population of the mallard is estimated at 9.2 million adult birds.
- Mallards molt twice a year. The first molt, the so-called post-marital molt, is complete, during which mallards lose their ability to fly for some time due to the loss of flight feathers. The second molt, the so-called prenuptial, is incomplete. During molting, mallards sometimes gather in large batches in well-protected, abundantly overgrown with aquatic vegetation reservoirs.
- Double Olympic champion in single rowing Bobby Pierce from Australia his first gold medal won in Amsterdam in 1928. In the quarterfinal race, he was far ahead of his opponent, when he suddenly noticed a duck with ducklings blocking his path. He decided to stop and let them pass, and at this time the enemy bypassed him by five buildings. However, Pierce managed to win both this race and all subsequent ones.
- British scientists have found that ducks love the rain. It took scientists three years and £300,000 to discover what every villager knows.

Duck mallard has a very tasty and nutritious meat. In addition, by autumn they gain a decent weight, which is an additional incentive for hunters. Mallard hunting is quite an interesting activity.

And another creepy fact.

The male duck may also occasionally engage in necrophilia. Well, at least there was one. It would not be fair to blame all male ducks for this, but Kees Moeliker, in his seminal document: "First case of homosexual necrophilia among mallards Anas platyrhynchos (Family: Anatidae)" writes about it:
“Next to the apparently dead duck was another male mallard (in adult plumage without any visible signs of molting). He forcibly climbed onto his back, grabbing at the base of the back of the head of a dead mallard, and then for about two minutes continuously shook her head from side to side, after which he began to copulate with a corpse with great strength. He was most likely satisfied, I watched this scene from a close distance from the window until 19.10, during this time (75 minutes!) I took several photos of the mallard copulating with its dead relative almost continuously. He did this only twice, staying close to the dead duck and grabbing the neck and again proceeding to re-attack. The first break (at 6:29 p.m.) lasted three minutes, and the second break (at 6:45 p.m.) lasted less than a minute. At 19.12 I broke this cruel scene. The necrophilic mallard reluctantly left its “half” when I approached him at five meters, he did not fly away, but simply moved away a few meters, weakly emitting a series of “quack-quacks”.

P.S.

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area: mallard distributed on almost all continents (Europe, Asia, South and North America, New Zealand, Australia, Africa), except for Antarctica.

Description: The mallard is the largest of the ducks. The paws are short, the three front toes are webbed. Sexual dimorphism is pronounced. The beak is flat and wide.
The body is wide and long. The size of ducks varies depending on the range: in the south, the birds are more stocky, and the beak is smaller in size.

Color: mating attire of the male - the neck and head are black (with an intense green tint), the chest and goiter are brown-chestnut, at the bottom of the neck there is a white ring, the beak is bright olive, the paws are orange or red. The back is gray with streaks.
The female is brown-red, the belly is gray-brown with mottles, the beak is gray or olive, with bright orange or yellow edges.
On the wings of both sexes there are purple specula with a white border. The tail is white, the undertail is black.
Young birds are reddish-brown with dark spots, the beak is brownish, the paws are dirty yellow, the membranes between the fingers are brown.
Chicks are brownish yellow.

Size: mallard body length up to 62 cm, wingspan up to 100 cm, wing length for males 27-30 cm, for females 25-28.5 cm.

Weight: varies greatly depending on the season - 0.8-2 kg.

Lifespan: in captivity up to 25 years, in nature presumably up to 15 years.

Voice: the mallard is similar to the voice of a domestic duck, because they are her ancestor.
The drake croaks dully during the breeding season.
Anas_platyrhynchos - 65 Kb
Anas_platyrhynchos - 65 Kb

Habitat: can be found in a wide variety of habitats where there is aquatic and coastal vegetation (bodies of water, wetlands, marshes, flooded areas, streams, farmland, coasts, bays, city parks and rivers).
Mountain rivers and bare (along the banks) reservoirs avoids. Can nest in fresh and brackish waters. Occurs up to 1800 above sea level.

Enemies: mallards and their chickens are hunted by birds of prey (grey crow, goshawk, white-tailed eagle, marsh harrier, large gulls, falcons, eagles, magpies), as well as predators - foxes, raccoon dogs, wild cats, otters, minks, skunks, martens, reptiles (snakes,) and even large fish.

social structure: The mallard is very social - out of the breeding season it forms rather large aggregations.

Food: the basis of the diet is vegetation (seeds, leaves and stems of grasses, sedge, duckweed, hornwort, pondweed, mustard, cereals, rice-like leersia, arrowhead, barnyard), also eats insects (grasshoppers), mollusks, fish eggs, earthworms, frogs, tadpoles, snails and slugs (especially young birds).
For feeding, it prefers shallow water (no deeper than 35-40 cm), so that it can reach the bottom with its beak.
At dusk, mallards can be found in agricultural fields where rice, grain, oats, wheat, barley, millet, soybeans and buckwheat are grown.
During laying and incubation of chicks, the amount of food eaten by the female doubles (mainly due to live food).
During the molting period, most of the diet of males falls on plant shoots and seeds.
Birds left to winter on the site feed on a variety of foods (silt, parts of plants, small fish and rodents, amphibians).

Behavior: leads both daytime and nocturnal lifestyle (until August - feeds during the day, during the opening of the hunting season - at dusk). Resting in places sheltered from the wind. Behaves carefully.
During feeding, the mallard lowers its head into the water (while the back of the body rises up).
It flies well, the takeoff is heavy, noisy. Flight speed 20-90 km/h. It can land on water at a very sharp angle, which allows birds to splash down on small water surfaces. Takeoff at a slight angle (no takeoff), can soar into the air almost vertically.
During the flight, the wings make the sounds "twist-twist-twist-twist".
Adult ducks do not dive, but if the bird is injured, it can both dive and swim underwater.
The molt takes place twice a year, the summer (full) molt takes about two months, which is why the birds cannot fly for 20-30 days.
Departure to warmer regions begins when shallow water freezes. Mallards fly off in small flocks. Arrival at nesting sites is quite early - during the beginning of snowmelt.

reproduction: marriage pairs are formed in the fall. The female hibernates with the male. Monogamous.
The male and female choose a nest site and build it together. The nest is usually located near water. Mallard's nest is a small hole in the ground (up to 28 cm in diameter) lined with dry vegetation.
During laying, the drake guards the female, but as soon as she sits down to incubate eggs (7-12 white eggs with a greenish tinge, weighing up to 55 g each), he flies away to molt. The female rushes every day, and incubation begins only after the end of the entire masonry.
Leaving the nest, the female covers the eggs with fluff, which accumulates in the nest as she molts. When the first clutch dies (for example, from predators or fire), the female lays the second, but with fewer eggs. Some females after fires return to the nest and continue to incubate eggs if they remain intact.
In repeated clutches, unfertilized eggs are often found.
During the incubation period, the female sits very tightly in the nest, even if a person comes close to him.

breeding season: depends on the range - from mid-April to August.

Puberty: in the first year of life.

Hatching time A: 26-28 days.

Offspring: chicks hatch together from eggs (within a few hours), and 12-16 hours after birth they go down to the water. Ducklings swim and dive well. At first, the chicks bask and rest under the wings of their mother.
Broods stay near thickets of coastal vegetation. After feeding, the duck with ducklings comes out on land to clean itself and sleep.
Young people grow quickly, at 10 days the chicks weigh 100 g, and by two months as adult ducks 0.8-0.9 kg.
Chicks fledge at eight weeks old and fly at 50. Most of chicks die (25-50%). As soon as the ducklings get on the wing, the female leaves them and flies away to molt.

Benefit / harm to humans: mallard - an object of sport hunting.

Population/conservation status: throughout the range - a common species. The main threat to mallards is habitat loss.
Ducks living in cities are prone to various diseases, for example, they are often etched from low-quality feed.
Mallard creates hybrids with other types of ducks, which negatively affects the purity of these species.

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Ducks were originally wild birds. Over time, people decided to domesticate them, engage in bird breeding and breeding at home. The work of breeders has yielded results, and today there are many breeds that are divided according to their focus on meat and dairy, can be kept away from a reservoir and quickly gain weight. Consider what the scientists were so interested in duck at one time and what features this waterfowl has.

We can say about ducks that they are folded proportionally, do not differ large sizes and have a beautiful color, which is typical for many species of small birds. The color of the duck is very diverse. If we talk about other birds, then within the same species, the color varies slightly. Ducks often have feathers on their wings. of blue color glare in the sun. Scientists call areas with a blue feather "mirrors".

It is difficult to distinguish between male and female ducks. Only in late autumn, when the mating season begins for waterfowl, the color of males becomes brighter than that of females. It is also worth noting that in autumn the bird molts, changing its flight feathers. Accordingly, the ability to fly during this period is lost.

It is difficult to say how many species of ducks exist today. Scientists divided all types of waterfowl into 8 large groups:

1. earthen;
2. shiny;
3. steamer ducks;
4. mergansers;
5. marine;
6. diving;
7. ducks;
8. river.

The principle of division is quite clear based on the name of each group. This classification is not the only one. Scientists distinguish as many as 13 genera, but the above remain the main ones. The smallest number of species belongs to the group of ground ducks. Representatives of the shelduck or shelduck breed (has red plumage), which are earth ducks, can not be found everywhere today. The hunters did their best to ensure that birds from the group of earth ducks are rarely seen today. Some species were last seen 40-50 years ago. These include, for example, the crested shelduck.

Most often in nature there is a mallard, which looks unsightly in the photo. It has an impressive size and lives near water bodies. The Argentinean, polar and black white-breasted duck, orange mandarin duck, long-tailed duck, red whistling, red, or ruddy duck, and the favorite blue waterfowl look unusual. In addition to representatives of the breed with different colors of feathers, there are birds with a beak of different colors. True, in this case, the colors vary slightly. The beak can be orange, olive or gray, and these colors can sometimes be distinguished only by the photo; there is also a beak red, yellow or white interspersed with black.

Features of nutrition of ducks of different groups

If we talk about ducks living in nature, then they eat what they can find in open water or in the forest. If we talk about land ducks, their food is herbs, they skillfully choose those herbs that are good for the body and do not contain poison. They are also engaged in the extraction of roots from the earth, which contain a large amount of nutrients.

A distinctive feature of the steamboat duck is the ability to dive deep. A duck living in a pond is able to reach the bottom, where it finds food for itself. Steamboat ducks like to eat various mollusks and crustaceans.

Ducks belonging to the diving group are not able to dive deep into the water. Their tail is always above the water, so they can feast on those river inhabitants that swim close to the surface of the water: these are zooplankton, various worms and insects, and mollusks. Diving duck feeds and various plants growing in water

Mergansers with an attractive crest on their heads are capable of spearfishing. In addition to shellfish and worms, they often treat themselves to fish. Mergansers live near the seas and feed on marine fish.

domesticated duck

Today, many keep this waterfowl at home. Despite the fact that its maintenance takes a lot of effort, people are engaged in its reproduction more and more often. This is due to the taste of waterfowl meat, which carries large eggs.

When kept at home, you have to equip places for swimming if there is no reservoir nearby, otherwise the duck does not gain weight properly. It is also worth taking into account the fact that the duck eats unusually much. At home, she is fed with mashes, which are based on cereals. In order to make the food fortified, fruits and vegetables are added to it, root crops and mineral supplements in the form of chalk and crushed shells are given to the wards. Of the vegetables, most birds are given pre-boiled potatoes. They also pamper the wards with carrots and beets, greens, which they peck perfectly.

The yellow chick fledges by 30 days. During this period, he is boldly released into the pond. Until that time water procedures do not last long, because the fluff is permeable. The growth rate of the bird allows it to be grown quickly. Ducks are pricked at the age of 5-8 months. Age is regulated by growth rates and characteristics of the breed.

You can make a house for growing waterfowl with your own hands by looking at the photo finished works. There are also photo lessons related to the arrangement of poultry houses. In the barn, a brooder should be equipped to keep the chicks. Peking duck and common white duck are popular for home breeding.

The greatest danger lies in wait for daily chicks. During this period, they need to be especially carefully monitored. Raising a waterfowl at home is not difficult because it has good health. The first sign of disease is lameness.

Pets that are lame must be caught and placed in a separate cage. The same applies to individuals that tilt their heads back.

Interesting facts about ducks and ducklings

We will not deal with the description of bird species, but we will talk about interesting facts. In fact, the duck is extraordinary interesting bird that lives both in the wild and in household. It is interesting that they began to domesticate these waterfowl back in ancient egypt. But, despite this, the population of wild birds to this day remains huge.

Consider what else attracts the attention of this waterfowl.

1. The Chinese are the most active in breeding ducklings. According to statistics, the Chinese raise 2 million representatives of this waterfowl every year. If we compare this figure with the world figure, which is 2.7 million, then we can calculate that it is ¾ of it. Such love for these individuals is due to the unique taste of meat, which they cook with various seasonings and marinate in all kinds of marinades.
2. If we talk about the species diversity of ducks, then today scientists recognize about 110 species. Although this figure cannot be called a record, it is surprising.
3. Everyone knows that under certain conditions any sound is reflected. This is due to the laws of physics. But duck quacking is not subject to these laws. Wherever this bird quacks, you will not hear an echo.
4. In order to get food for themselves, the duck is able to dive 5-6 meters. The duckling will not dive so deep, but is also capable of spearfishing. True, in this case we are talking about certain types of waterfowl.
5. Few people know that only females are capable of quacking. Thus, they call the male representatives during mating and communicate with ducklings. It would be incorrect to say that males, which are called drakes, cannot quack. They make certain sounds, and sometimes quite loud, which are different from the quacking of females: they are more like hissing.
6. Another fact that is not known to almost anyone concerns the structure of the neck in waterfowl. No one will dispute the fact that it is unusually short in ducks. But there are more vertebrae than a giraffe. They are just tiny.
7. Little ducklings can be safely deceived by planting, after birth, not with that duck, but with any other, or even with a chicken. Ducks consider their mother the creature that they first saw after birth. This simplifies the maintenance of chicks at home.
8. Since the duck is a waterfowl, nature made sure that its wings never get wet. You can wet duck feathers only after they have been treated with special compounds. This allows ducks to swim at any time of the year, even in winter, and to conduct spearfishing.
9. During molting, a duck that loses feathers is not able to fly. During this period, it becomes easy prey for hunters and large animals.
10. Wild birds change their place of deployment for the winter, although not all waterfowl leave their water bodies. Some live in a particular area throughout the year. And those who still fly for the winter travel several hundred kilometers a day. As for record distances, it was recorded that some individuals are able to fly about 500 km per day. At the same time, ducks fly at a speed exceeding 100 km / h. According to the data available today, the highest speed at which a bird is able to move is 170 km / h.
11. Another feature regarding the structure of birds, which almost no one knows about, despite the fact that everyone has seen a duck at least once in their life. This bird has 3 centuries, each of which performs a specific function.
12. The history recorded the fact of a collision of an aircraft with a duck. It happened at an altitude of 9 km above sea level. Almost no bird can rise to such a height.
13. Duck feet do not have nerve endings or blood vessels. It is thanks to this fact that they calmly swim in cold water and walk on cold ice for hours on end.
14. There is an interesting historical fact about ducks. In 1916, there was a conflict between Ireland and Great Britain, which caused hostilities in these countries. They did not bypass Dublin, which was inhabited by a large number of wild ducks. The main place of their deployment was the central park. At a certain time, all hostilities ceased, and the park worker was engaged in feeding the birds.
15. Ducks also once helped to study the currents of the ocean. True, they were plastic. A certain merchant ship, making a voyage, “lost” containers with plastic ducks in the ocean. For many years after this event, plastic ducklings were found in various parts of the world.
16. Despite the taste of duck meat, the inhabitants of Latin America do not eat it.
17. It is best to learn to eat ducklings from each other's backs. This is due to the fact that food, according to waterfowl, must move.
18. Well, the last interesting fact is that a duck can breathe underwater.

These are the main ones, but not all. Interesting Facts about ducks.

Gastronomic interest in ducks

A duck is not only a beautiful, but also a delicious bird. A wide variety of dishes are prepared from duck meat today. meat dishes. In addition to the fact that the cut carcasses are fried, stuffed and baked, rolls with mushrooms and other fillings, pate are prepared from the sirloin. The most delicious, according to many people, is a duck with honey or cherries, baked in sour cream, an orange. Yes, and in principle, honey is often used as a marinade for duck meat, which turns out to be fragrant and unusually tasty. And carcasses are cut only with a sharp knife.

Duck meat is served with potatoes, mushrooms, beans or vegetables.

In general, each nation has its own secrets of cooking this wonderful meat. The Chinese are especially good at ducks, baking them in honey. The second most popular dish in the world is stuffed duck. As a filling, you can use sauerkraut with lingonberries, apples, rice, buckwheat with mushrooms. You can also stuff the duck with potatoes, beans and any other legumes. A well-cooked duck can be confused with a turkey.

Consider how to roast duck or stuff potatoes, as well as best recipes cooking and photo dishes, we will not. Recipes can be very different, and here it is worth experimenting in search of your dish. We only note that the calorie content of duck meat dishes averages 300 kcal per 100 g.

For cooking, whether in honey, sour cream or other marinade, use varieties that have been bred as meat breeds, as they have the most delicious meat. There are already meat breeds that are loved by many people, but new ones appear every year. They should not be ignored as breeders are constantly working to improve palatability meat.

Some sometimes mistakenly believe that ducks are stupid birds. This is not at all the case, they are smart enough, besides, nature itself has adapted them to survive in the most severe conditions. These birds are capable of crossing seas and continents, surviving extreme cold and eating a wide variety of foods. For this, perhaps, they should be thanked by evolution.

Facts about ducks

• Of the more than 110 species of ducks that exist in the world, more than 30 are found in Russia (facts about Russia).
• Three quarters of all domestic ducks (about 2 million) are raised annually in China.
• Contrary to popular myth, duck quacks do have an echo under certain conditions. But in most cases there really is no echo, that's a fact.
• Drakes do not know how to quack at all - only females of these birds can reproduce this sound.
• There are more vertebrae in the neck of a duck than in the neck of a giraffe.
• For a year, an adult duck is able to carry up to 240-260 eggs.
• Cases have been recorded when ducks floating on the surface of a reservoir became victims of large pikes (pike facts).
• Duck feathers cannot be wetted because they are covered with a special fatty layer. This secret is produced by glands near the base of the tail feathers, and ducks apply it with their beak to the whole body.
• The paws of these birds are unable to feel the cold, as they do not have blood vessels and nerve endings.
• During the annual molt, ducks lose their ability to fly, as they lose a lot of feathers.
• Moving on land, these birds clumsily roll from side to side because of their short and, moreover, widely spaced legs.
• Everyone knows that ducks sometimes dive underwater in search of food, but few people know that the depth of their dive can be 5-6 meters.
• Having eaten, they swallow stones and clay. This helps them digest food more efficiently.
• Baby ducklings really consider the first creature they see when they get out of the egg to be their mother. Moreover, this creature can be, for example, a person or domestic cat- ducklings don't care.

• Duck meat is popular with culinary specialists almost all over the world. The only region where domestic ducks are almost never bred is the countries of South and Central America.
• Once, back in 1992, during a storm, several containers filled with plastic ducks were washed off the deck of a merchant ship. In total, about 30 thousand toys were lost, and then they were found in different parts of the world for several years. But every cloud has a silver lining - thanks to these findings, scientists managed to learn a lot about ocean currents.
• During migration, ducks sometimes fly 400-500 kilometers a day.
• Ducks have three centuries. One for blinking, one for eye protection, and one for sleep. Owls, by the way, do the same (facts about owls).
• Usually ducks fly at an average speed, but once researchers recorded a wild duck flying at a speed of 170 km/h. She was flying in front of a small plane, and was apparently terrified to death, which gave her strength.
• These birds rarely rise to a height of more than a kilometer, however, they are capable of it. Once in the USA, the plane collided with a duck at an altitude of 6.5 kilometers.
• Ducks have 80 chromosomes.
• Judging by the discovered archaeological finds, about 5000 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia, people had already domesticated ducks and were breeding them with might and main.
• During molting, these birds stop laying eggs.

Mallard is the most famous bird among ducks. According to the classification of species, the mallard is part of the order Anseriformes, but it is customary to classify it as a duck family.

Appearance

Outwardly, the mallard is a rather dense and well-fed duck. These birds have a very small tail, but the head is quite impressive. In length, mallards can reach 60 centimeters, small birds have a length of about 40 centimeters. The wingspan of these individuals reaches one meter. One wing has an average length of about 30 centimeters. The body weight of a mallard is approximately 1.5 kilograms.

The beak, as is traditional for ducks, is quite wide and flat. The color of the beak is different for the representatives of the sexes, so it is easy to determine the gender by it. Males usually get a beak that has a greenish tint at the base, but towards the end it changes to yellow. Older males may have beaks without iridescence of orange or olive color. In females, the beak is rather unusual; at the base, black specks can be seen on it.

Males and females of these wild ducks, in principle, are quite easy to distinguish from each other, since this species is characterized by sexual dimorphism. Sexual representatives of mallards have significant differences in their appearance. Young males, as a rule, have a very bright and iridescent color. For example, on the head and neck they usually have feathers of a beautiful emerald color. There is also a small patch on the neck. white color which resembles a collar. The back usually has a gray color, which gradually changes to black. The breast is traditionally dark brown, and the belly is painted in gray colors. Males have very beautiful wings. They are mostly covered with brown plumage, however, there is also a blue-violet area on it, which resembles a kind of mirror. This mirror is framed with white feathers. The tail of the drake is usually gray or black. The mirror on the wings becomes larger and larger with age. In females, the color is less bright. During the molting period, drakes are almost impossible to distinguish from females by color, as their colors also become quite pale. Only a beak can help in such a situation. The legs of all ducks are red.

Females do not differ in such complex plumage as males. In most cases, gray, brown and red shades can be found in their color. They are traditionally placed on the back and wings. On the breast, the feathers are painted in ocher, the legs have a dull orange color.

Where do they live?

Mallards are mainly distributed in the northern hemisphere. In our country, they can be found in the Tundra. If we take Europe, then there they are found quite often, they cannot be found only in the highlands. Such wild ducks are partly migratory. For example, those individuals that live in Greenland do not fly away for the winter, since the climate there is also suitable for nesting. From Russia, ducks traditionally migrate to Turkey and the Mediterranean Sea. In the Himalayas, mallards simply come down to wait out the winter.

In general, mallards prefer to live in forest-steppe belts. They can live in both fresh and salt water. These ducks do not really like rivers and other bodies of water that have a fast current. In addition, mallards do not settle near lakes, in which there is very poor flora and fauna.

As soon as the time comes to equip their nests, mallards find ponds with stagnant water, because in them in large numbers reeds and sedges grow.

What do they eat?

Mallards eat quite diversely, they are not whimsical in food. Each meal can be compared to a filtering process. In the beak, these ducks have special plates that can separate plants, as well as aquatic animals. Mallards calmly eat fish, tadpoles, insects and even frogs.

Near reservoirs, you can sometimes find an unusual picture when a duck plunges its head and body into the water, leaving only a protruding tail outside. This phenomenon means that the mallard is trying to get aquatic plants growing at the bottom.

How does shedding happen?

A distinctive feature of mallards in comparison with other species of birds is molting, which is carried out as much as twice a year. This phenomenon accompanies mallards before nesting and at the end of the mating season. As soon as the females begin to incubate the eggs, the males begin to change plumage. In females, molting begins after the chicks begin to make their first flights. If the female was left without a mate during the mating season or she did not lay eggs, the process of molting will begin at the same time as that of males. To change their plumage, mallards usually leave their homes for the steppe.

How does reproduction take place?

Puberty in ducks occurs at the age of one year. It is from this moment that mallards can already fully reproduce. As a rule, if ducks do not migrate, then in the fall they begin to look for a mate. The rest do this after flying to warmer climes. Most often, in flocks, the number of males is much greater than the number of females. This is due to the fact that females often die during the period of incubation of eggs. It is this fact that makes males participate in the real struggle for females, as well as for the opportunity to continue their race. To show the female best qualities, males use certain mating rituals.

First, the drake gently swims up to the female, lowering its beak down. Then he very sharply and with great expression brings his beak up several times, the whole process is accompanied by splashes. If he really liked the female, then the male begins to hide his beak under the wing, accompanying this action with traditional sounds. If the female drake also liked it, she swims around it for several circles, nodding her head at the same time. After that, the formed pair is removed to a secluded place, where mating takes place.

Traditionally, the drake is present next to its half, only until it lays eggs. Then he joins other males and flies with them to the steppe to molt.

Nest arrangement

Only the females are involved in building nests in mallards. They can choose any place. Most often, thickets of reeds or sedges, tree hollows or old nests of other birds are chosen for this purpose. At the time when the eggs are laid, the nest is not always fully completed, sometimes the female completes its arrangement after incubation. Females absolutely do not like to leave their nest during the period of incubation, and therefore they often fall into the teeth of foxes, raccoon dogs or marsh harriers. If the female loses her clutch, she may next time lay her eggs in a neighbor's nest or in the old nests of other birds. One clutch includes up to 15 eggs. Traditionally mallards do not lay less than 9 eggs.

After hatching from the eggs, the chicks have an olive or creamy down on the body. Toddlers need only 20 hours to start running, diving and swimming. After that, they begin to feed on their own, look for insects.

Video: mallard (wild river duck)