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| File:Duck thumbnail.jpg A male mallard duck Click for larger image | ||||||||||
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Duck is the common name for a number of types of bird in the family Anatidae. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, smaller than swans or geese, found in both fresh and salt water. Ducks exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, grains and water plants, fish, insects, and the like.
Ducks have many domestic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, and feathers and down. In particular, eiderdown is notable for being shed by wild eider ducks rather than plucked.
Some species of duck include the mallards (see image), pintails, scoters, wood ducks, mergansers, teal, and whistling ducks.
For further taxonomic comments, see also Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy.
Ducks should not be confused with several types of unrelated birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots.
Fictional, anthropomorphized ducks: The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen, and Walt Disney's Donald Duck, Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck, Daisy Duck, Scrooge McDuck.