Misplaced Pages

Duck

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Tomi (talk | contribs) at 20:15, 3 January 2003. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 20:15, 3 January 2003 by Tomi (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

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.

File:Duck thumbnail.jpg
male mallard duck Larger image

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.

Ducks should not be confused with several types of unrelated birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots.


See also: wildfowl, waterfowl


Fictional, anthropomorphized ducks: Donald Duck, Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck, Daisy Duck, Scrooge McDuck.