page_title: Duck
hierarchical_section_title: Duck
caption_attribution_description: English: Mallard and ducklings, Bangor [2] The mallard and her eleven ducklings (some missing unseen to left) back in Bangor marina - for explanation see 836569.
context_page_description: Ducks are birds in the family Anatidae. Ducks are closely related to swans and geese, which are in the same family. Ducks are not a monophyletic group. They are a 'form taxon', since swans and geese are not called ducks. The main difference is that ducks have shorter necks, and are smaller.
  Other swimming and diving birds, like grebes and loons, are not ducks. A baby duck is called a duckling, and a male duck is called a drake. Most ducks are aquatic birds. They can be found in both saltwater and fresh water.
  Ducks lay eggs once a year and are omnivorous, eating aquatic plants and tiny animals. 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 edge of the beak there is a comb-like structure called a pecten. This strains the water squirting from the side of the beak and traps any food. The pecten is also used to preen feathers. Diving ducks dive deep to get their food.
  Many ducks are migratory. This means that they spend the summer months in a different place than the winter months. Ducks show a cosmopolitan distribution, they can be found all over the world, except for Antarctica.
context_section_description: Ducks are birds in the family Anatidae. Ducks are closely related to swans and geese, which are in the same family. Ducks are not a monophyletic group. They are a 'form taxon', since swans and geese (in the same family) are not called ducks.  The main difference is that ducks have shorter necks, and are smaller. 
  Other swimming and diving birds, like grebes and loons, are not ducks. A baby duck is called a duckling, and a male duck is called a drake. Most ducks are aquatic birds. They can be found in both saltwater and fresh water. 
  Ducks lay eggs once a year and are omnivorous, eating aquatic plants and tiny animals. 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 edge of the beak there is a comb-like structure called a pecten. This strains the water squirting from the side of the beak and traps any food. The pecten is also used to preen feathers. Diving ducks dive deep to get their food.
  Many ducks are migratory. This means that they spend the summer months in a different place than the winter months. Ducks show a cosmopolitan distribution, they can be found all over the world, except for Antarctica. Some duck species live on the South Georgia and Auckland Islands, which are subantarctic. Many species have established themselves on remote islands, such as Kerguelen or Hawaii. 
  Some ducks are bred and kept by humans. They are not wild ducks.  They are kept to provide food (meat and eggs), or to use their feathers for pillows and other items in the house. Especially in Asia, many people like to eat duck.
  Ducks are sometimes kept as pets. They are often kept by groups of people on public ponds for their beauty and calming nature. People commonly feed ducks in ponds stale bread, thinking that the ducks will like to have something to eat. However bread is not healthy for ducks and can kill them.
  The popular fictional ducks include Daffy Duck from Looney Tunes and Donald Duck from Disney.
caption: Where she goes, they go: the result of imprinting
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot S5 IS", "Image Orientation": "0", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image Software": "Picasa 3.0", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2008:06:08 11:05:23", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "210", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "3578", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3211", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/400", "EXIF FNumber": "7/2", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:06:08 11:05:23", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:06:08 11:05:23", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "5", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "277/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "29/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "29/8", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "72", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "640", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "384", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "640", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "384", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "3430", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "43520/3", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "2448000/169", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "24d6a373723aac5426716f49cb0b994e"}