71-496: About five; see text The common moorhen ( Gallinula chloropus ), also known as the waterhen or swamp chicken , is a bird species in the rail family (Rallidae). It is distributed across many parts of the Old World , from Africa to Europe and Asia. The common moorhen lives around well-vegetated marshes, ponds, canals and other wetlands. The species is not found in the polar regions or many tropical rainforests . Elsewhere it
142-569: A derivative of the verb * dūcan 'to duck, bend down low as if to get under something, or dive', because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending; compare with Dutch duiken and German tauchen 'to dive'. This word replaced Old English ened / ænid 'duck', possibly to avoid confusion with other words, such as ende 'end' with similar forms. Other Germanic languages still have similar words for duck , for example, Dutch eend , German Ente and Norwegian and . The word ened / ænid
213-450: A duck squatting on land cannot react to fly or move quickly, "a sitting duck" has come to mean "an easy target". These ducks may be contaminated by pollutants such as PCBs . Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, and feathers (particularly their down ). Approximately 3 billion ducks are slaughtered each year for meat worldwide. They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. Almost all
284-399: A family of small to medium-sized, ground-living birds. They vary in length from 12 to 63 cm (5 to 25 in) and in weight from 20 to 3,000 g (0.7 oz to 6 lb 10 oz). Some species have long necks and in many cases are laterally compressed. The bill is the most variable feature within the family. In some species, it is longer than the head (like the clapper rail of
355-547: A few eggs hatch after the mother has abandoned the nest and led her ducklings to water. Female mallard ducks (as well as several other species in the genus Anas , such as the American and Pacific black ducks , spot-billed duck , northern pintail and common teal ) make the classic "quack" sound while males make a similar but raspier sound that is sometimes written as "breeeeze", but, despite widespread misconceptions, most species of duck do not "quack". In general, ducks make
426-474: A global scale – all subspecies taken together – the common moorhen is as abundant as its vernacular name implies. It is therefore considered a species of Least Concern by the IUCN . However, small populations may be prone to extinction . The population of Palau , belonging to the widespread subspecies G. c. orientalis and locally known as debar (a generic term also used for ducks and meaning roughly "waterfowl"),
497-621: A large, cosmopolitan family of small- to medium-sized terrestrial and/or semi-amphibious birds . The family exhibits considerable diversity in its forms, and includes such ubiquitous species as the crakes, coots , and gallinule ; other rail species are extremely rare or endangered. Many are associated with wetland habitats, some being semi-aquatic like waterfowl (such as the coot), but many more are wading birds or shorebirds. The ideal rail habitats are marsh areas, including rice paddies , and flooded fields or open forest. They are especially fond of dense vegetation for nesting. The rail family
568-512: A persistently high ability to disperse long distances among tropic Pacific islands, though only the latter two gave rise to flightless endemic species throughout the Pacific Basin. In examining the phylogeny of G. philippensis , although the species is clearly polyphyletic (it has more than one ancestral species), it is not the ancestor of most of its flightless descendants, revealing that the flightless condition evolved in rails before speciation
639-478: A range of calls , including whistles, cooing, yodels and grunts. For example, the scaup – which are diving ducks – make a noise like "scaup" (hence their name). Calls may be loud displaying calls or quieter contact calls. A common urban legend claims that duck quacks do not echo; however, this has been proven to be false. This myth was first debunked by the Acoustics Research Centre at
710-409: A squirming frog. To avoid injury when digging into sediment it has no cere , but the nostrils come out through hard horn. The Guardian published an article advising that ducks should not be fed with bread because it damages the health of the ducks and pollutes waterways. Ducks generally only have one partner at a time , although the partnership usually only lasts one year. Larger species and
781-516: A tribe (Dendrocygnini) in the subfamily Anatinae or the subfamily Anserinae, or to their own subfamily (Dendrocygninae) or family (Dendrocyganidae). The freckled duck of Australia is either the sole member of the tribe Stictonettini in the subfamily Anserinae, or in its own family, the Stictonettinae. The shelducks make up the tribe Tadornini in the family Anserinae in some classifications, and their own subfamily, Tadorninae, in others, while
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#1732855572698852-456: A variety of subfamilies and 'tribes'. The number and composition of these subfamilies and tribes is the cause of considerable disagreement among taxonomists. Some base their decisions on morphological characteristics , others on shared behaviours or genetic studies. The number of suggested subfamilies containing ducks ranges from two to five. The significant level of hybridisation that occurs among wild ducks complicates efforts to tease apart
923-422: Is Swinhoe's rail , at 13 cm (5.1 in) and 25 g. The larger species are also sometimes given other names. The black coots are more adapted to open water than their relatives, and some other large species are called gallinules and swamphens. The largest of this group is the takahē , at 65 cm (26 in) and 2.7 kg (6.0 lb). The rails have suffered disproportionally from human changes to
994-402: Is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism , although there are exceptions such as the paradise shelduck of New Zealand , which is both strikingly sexually dimorphic and in which the female's plumage is brighter than that of the male. The plumage of juvenile birds generally resembles that of
1065-466: Is a significant contributor to the rail's remarkably fast loss of flight; as few as 125,000 years were needed for the Laysan rail to lose the power of flight and evolve the reduced, stubby wings only useful to keep balance when running quickly. Indeed, some argue that measuring the evolution of flightlessness in rails in generations rather than millennia might be possible. Another factor that contributes to
1136-532: Is extinct) Crex – corn crake Lewinia – rails (4 species) Aptenorallus – Calayan rail Habroptila – invisible rail Gallirallus – weka Eulabeornis – chestnut rail Hypotaenidia – rails and woodhen (12 species of which 4 are extinct) Himantornis – Nkulengu rail Porzana – crakes and sora (3 species) Tribonyx – nativehens (2 species) Paragallinula – lesser moorhen Gallinula – moorhens (7 species of which 2 are extinct) Fulica – coots (11 species of which 1
1207-482: Is extinct) Porphyrio – swamphens, gallinules and takahes (12 species of which 2 are extinct) Micropygia – ocellated crake Rufirallus – crakes (2 species) Coturnicops – rails and a crake (3 species) Laterallus – crakes and rails (13 species) Duck See text Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae . Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese , which are members of
1278-565: Is found in every terrestrial habitat with the exception of dry desert , polar or freezing regions, and alpine areas (above the snow line ). Members of Rallidae occur on every continent except Antarctica . Numerous unique island species are known. "Rail" is the anglicized respelling of the French râle , from Old French rasle . It is named from its harsh cry, in Vulgar Latin * rascula , from Latin rādere ("to scrape"). The rails are
1349-714: Is likely the most common rail species, except for the Eurasian coot in some regions. The closely related common gallinule of the New World has been recognized as a separate species by most authorities, starting with the American Ornithologists' Union and the International Ornithological Committee in 2011. The common moorhen was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in
1420-419: Is one of the best examples of parallel evolution in the animal kingdom. Of the roughly 150 historically known rail species, 31 extant or recently extinct species evolved flightlessness from volant (flying) ancestors. This process created the endemic populations of flightless rails seen on Pacific islands today. Many island rails are flightless because small island habitats without mammalian predators eliminate
1491-403: Is sometimes labelled as a duckling. A male is called a drake and the female is called a duck, or in ornithology a hen. All ducks belong to the biological order Anseriformes , a group that contains the ducks, geese and swans, as well as the screamers , and the magpie goose . All except the screamers belong to the biological family Anatidae . Within the family, ducks are split into
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#17328555726981562-658: Is very rare, and apparently the birds are hunted by locals. Most of the population on the archipelago occurs on Angaur and Peleliu , while the species is probably already gone from Koror . In the Lake Ngardok wetlands of Babeldaob , a few dozen still occur, but the total number of common moorhens on Palau is about in the same region as the Guam population: fewer than 100 adult birds (usually fewer than 50) have been encountered in any survey. Other localised groups of common moorhen are starting to come under threat. The Royal Society for
1633-539: The American purple gallinule , have been considered pests . Due to their tendencies towards flightlessness, many island species have been unable to cope with introduced species. The most dramatic human-caused extinctions occurred in the Pacific Ocean as people colonised the islands of Melanesia , Polynesia , and Micronesia , during which an estimated 750–1800 species of birds became extinct, half of which were rails. Some species that came close to extinction, such as
1704-555: The Ancient Greek khlōros χλωρός meaning "green" and pous ( πούς ) meaning "foot". The name mor-hen has been recorded in English since the 13th century. The word moor here is an old sense meaning marsh ; the species is not usually found in moorland . An older name, common waterhen, is more descriptive of the bird's habitat . A "watercock" is not a male "waterhen" but the rail species Gallicrex cinerea , not closely related to
1775-517: The Chatham duck , a species with reduced flying capabilities which went extinct shortly after its island was colonised by Polynesian settlers. It is probable that duck eggs were gathered by Neolithic hunter-gathers as well, though hard evidence of this is uncommon. In many areas, wild ducks (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or by being trapped using duck decoys . Because an idle floating duck or
1846-432: The Eurasian coot , Fulica atra ) from which the cyclocoelid flatworm parasite Cyclocoelum mutabile was first described. The bird is also parasitised by the moorhen flea , Dasypsyllus gallinulae . Five subspecies are today considered valid; several more have been described that are now considered junior synonyms . Most are not very readily recognizable, as differences are rather subtle and often clinal . Usually,
1917-716: The Galápagos Islands , where they are often vagrants and less often residents . A handful are endemic to such far-flung islands. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Ducks eat food sources such as grasses , aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians, worms, and small molluscs . Dabbling ducks feed on
1988-453: The Lord Howe woodhen , and the takahē, have made modest recoveries due to the efforts of conservation organisations. The Guam rail came perilously close to extinction when brown tree snakes were introduced to Guam , but some of the last remaining individuals were taken into captivity and are breeding well, though attempts at reintroduction have met with mixed results. The family Rallidae
2059-561: The University of Salford in 2003 as part of the British Association 's Festival of Science. It was also debunked in one of the earlier episodes of the popular Discovery Channel television show MythBusters . Ducks have many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for predatory birds but also for large fish like pike , crocodilians , predatory testudines such as
2130-486: The alligator snapping turtle , and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons . Ducks' nests are raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may be caught unaware on the nest by mammals, such as foxes , or large birds, such as hawks or owls . Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators including big fish such as the North American muskie and
2201-610: The little crake ( Zapornia parva ). The wings of all rails are short and rounded. The flight of those Rallidae able to fly, while not powerful, can be sustained for long periods of time, and many species migrate annually. The weakness of their flight, however, means they are easily blown off course, thus making them common vagrants , a characteristic that has led them to colonize many isolated oceanic islands. Furthermore, these birds often prefer to run rather than fly, especially in dense habitat. Some are also flightless at some time during their moult periods. Flightlessness in rails
Common moorhen - Misplaced Pages Continue
2272-418: The steamer ducks are either placed in the family Anserinae in the tribe Tachyerini or lumped with the shelducks in the tribe Tadorini. The perching ducks make up in the tribe Cairinini in the subfamily Anserinae in some classifications, while that tribe is eliminated in other classifications and its members assigned to the tribe Anatini. The torrent duck is generally included in the subfamily Anserinae in
2343-489: The tenth edition of his Systema Naturae . He placed it in the genus Fulica and coined the binomial name Fulica chloropus . The common moorhen is now one of five extant species placed in the genus Gallinula that was introduced in 1760 by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson . The genus name is from Latin gallinula meaning "little hen" or "little chicken". The specific epithet chloropus combines
2414-479: The Americas ); in others, it may be short and wide (as in the coots ), or massive (as in the purple gallinules ). A few coots and gallinules have a frontal shield , which is a fleshy, rearward extension of the upper bill. The most complex frontal shield is found in the horned coot . Rails exhibit very little sexual dimorphism in either plumage or size. Two exceptions are the watercock ( Gallicrex cinerea ) and
2485-551: The European pike . In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the peregrine falcon , which uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. Humans have hunted ducks since prehistoric times. Excavations of middens in California dating to 7800 – 6400 BP have turned up bones of ducks, including at least one now-extinct flightless species. Ducks were captured in "significant numbers" by Holocene inhabitants of
2556-605: The Protection of Birds in the United Kingdom has the common moorhen classified as one of its 103 species whose conservation status is of moderate concern due to its recent population decine. The number of breeding pairs has fallen to its lowest level in the UK since 1966 and has been protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981). The common moorhen is one of the birds (the other is
2627-484: The Yangtze River, whilst northern populations migrate in the winter, therefore these populations show high genetic diversity. This species will consume a wide variety of vegetable material and small aquatic creatures. They forage beside or in the water, sometimes walking on lilypads or upending in the water to feed. They are often secretive, but can become tame in some areas. Despite loss of habitat in parts of its range,
2698-423: The adult has a rounded top and fairly parallel sides; the tailward margin of the red unfeathered area is a smooth waving line. Race meridionalis is smaller than the nominate , has slaty blue-grey upperwing coverts and lacks the olive wash. Race orientalis is similar to meridionalis but has a larger shield. Race pyrrhorrhoa is darker than the nominate; race pyrrhorrhoa has buff undertail coverts . In
2769-535: The coat of arms of Lubāna ( Latvia ) and the coat of arms of Föglö ( Åland ). In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire , UK , finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that of all animals, ducks attract the 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, possibly because ducks are seen as silly in their looks or behavior. Of
2840-500: The common moorhen remains plentiful and widespread. The birds are territorial during breeding season, and will fight with other members of their species, as well as other water birds such as ducks , to drive them out of their territory. The nest is a basket built on the ground in dense vegetation. Laying starts in spring, between mid-March and mid-May in Northern hemisphere temperate regions. About 8 eggs are usually laid per female early in
2911-434: The common moorhen. "Water rail" usually refers to Rallus aquaticus , again not closely related. Five subspecies are recognised: The moorhen is a distinctive species, with predominantly black and brown plumage, with the exception of a white under-tail, white streaks on the flanks, yellow legs and a red frontal shield . The bill is red with a yellow tip. The young are browner and lack the red shield. The frontal shield of
Common moorhen - Misplaced Pages Continue
2982-469: The diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. A few specialized species such as the mergansers are adapted to catch and swallow large fish. The others have the characteristic wide flat bill adapted to dredging -type jobs such as pulling up waterweed, pulling worms and small molluscs out of mud, searching for insect larvae, and bulk jobs such as dredging out, holding, turning head first, and swallowing
3053-578: The environment, and an estimated several hundred species of island rails have become extinct because of this. Several island species of rails remain endangered , and conservation organisations and governments continue to work to prevent their extinction. The breeding behaviors of many Rallidae species are poorly understood or unknown. Most are thought to be monogamous , although polygyny and polyandry have been reported. Most often, they lay five to 10 eggs . Clutches as small as one or as large as 15 eggs are known. Egg clutches may not always hatch at
3124-434: The evolution of multiple sizes of flightless rails on the same island as the birds diversify to fill niches. In addition to energy conservation, certain morphological traits also affect rail evolution. Rails have relatively small flight muscles and wings to begin with. In rails, the flight muscles make up only 12–17% of their overall body mass. This, in combination with their terrestrial habits and behavioral flightlessness,
3195-569: The family to ordinal level as the Ralliformes. Given uncertainty about gruiform monophyly , this may or may not be correct; it certainly seems more justified than most of the Sibley-Ahlquist proposals. However, such a group would probably also include the Heliornithidae (finfoots and sungrebes), an exclusively tropical group that is somewhat convergent with grebes , and usually united with
3266-520: The female. Female ducks have evolved to have a corkscrew shaped vagina to prevent rape. Ducks have a cosmopolitan distribution , and are found on every continent except Antarctica. Several species manage to live on subantarctic islands, including South Georgia and the Auckland Islands . Ducks have reached a number of isolated oceanic islands, including the Hawaiian Islands , Micronesia and
3337-402: The geese and swans. The body shape of diving ducks varies somewhat from this in being more rounded. The bill is usually broad and contains serrated pectens , which are particularly well defined in the filter-feeding species. In the case of some fishing species the bill is long and strongly serrated. The scaled legs are strong and well developed, and generally set far back on the body, more so in
3408-514: The highly aquatic species. The wings are very strong and are generally short and pointed, and the flight of ducks requires fast continuous strokes, requiring in turn strong wing muscles. Three species of steamer duck are almost flightless, however. 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 . The drakes of northern species often have extravagant plumage , but that
3479-427: The introduction of terrestrial predators such as cats , foxes , weasels , mongooses , rats , and pigs . Many reedbed species are secretive (apart from loud calls), crepuscular , and have laterally flattened bodies. In the Old World , long-billed species tend to be called rails and short-billed species crakes. North American species are normally called rails irrespective of bill length. The smallest of these
3550-543: The location of a sighting is the most reliable indication as to subspecies identification, but the migratory tendencies of this species make identifications based on location not completely reliable. In addition to the extant subspecies listed below, an undescribed form from the Early Pleistocene is recorded from Dursunlu in Turkey . Rail (bird) Some 40 living, and see below . Rails (avian family Rallidae ) are
3621-612: The lower Ohio River valley, suggesting they took advantage of the seasonal bounty provided by migrating waterfowl. Neolithic hunters in locations as far apart as the Caribbean, Scandinavia, Egypt, Switzerland, and China relied on ducks as a source of protein for some or all of the year. Archeological evidence shows that Māori people in New Zealand hunted the flightless Finsch's duck , possibly to extinction, though rat predation may also have contributed to its fate. A similar end awaited
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#17328555726983692-457: The many ducks in fiction , many are cartoon characters, such as Walt Disney 's Donald Duck , and Warner Bros. ' Daffy Duck . Howard the Duck started as a comic book character in 1973 and was made into a movie in 1986. The 1992 Disney film The Mighty Ducks , starring Emilio Estevez , chose the duck as the mascot for the fictional youth hockey team who are protagonists of the movie, based on
3763-406: The monotypic tribe Merganettini, but is sometimes included in the tribe Tadornini. The pink-eared duck is sometimes included as a true duck either in the tribe Anatini or the tribe Malacorhynchini, and other times is included with the shelducks in the tribe Tadornini. The overall body plan of ducks is elongated and broad, and they are also relatively long-necked, albeit not as long-necked as
3834-709: The more sedentary species (like fast-river specialists) tend to have pair-bonds that last numerous years. Most duck species breed once a year, choosing to do so in favourable conditions ( spring /summer or wet seasons). Ducks also tend to make a nest before breeding, and, after hatching, lead their ducklings to water. Mother ducks are very caring and protective of their young, but may abandon some of their ducklings if they are physically stuck in an area they cannot get out of (such as nesting in an enclosed courtyard ) or are not prospering due to genetic defects or sickness brought about by hypothermia, starvation, or disease. Ducklings can also be orphaned by inconsistent late hatching where
3905-415: The need to fly or move long distances. Flight makes intense demands, with the keel and flight muscles taking up to 40% of a bird's weight. Reducing the flight muscles, with a corresponding lowering of metabolic demands, reduces the flightless rail's energy expenditures. For this reason, flightlessness makes it easier to survive and colonize an island where resources may be limited. This also allows for
3976-544: The occurrence of the flightless state is a climate that does not necessitate seasonal long-distance migration; this is evidenced by the tendency to evolve flightlessness at a much greater occurrence in tropical islands than in temperate or polar islands. It is paradoxical, since rails appear loath to fly, that the evolution of flightless rails would necessitate high dispersal to isolated islands. Nonetheless, three species of small-massed rails, Gallirallus philippensis , Porphyrio porphyrio , and Porzana tabuensis , exhibit
4047-793: The population as an entirety, rather than many young that would exhibit less fitness. Unfortunately, with the human occupation of most islands in the past 5,000 to 35,000 years, selection has undoubtedly reversed the tolerance into a wariness of humans and predators, causing species unequipped for the change to become susceptible to extinction. In general, members of the Rallidae are omnivorous generalists. Many species eat invertebrates , as well as fruit or seedlings. A few species are primarily herbivorous . The calls of Rallidae species vary and are often quite loud. Some are whistle-like or squeak-like, while others seem unbirdlike. Loud calls are useful in dense vegetation, or at night where seeing another member of
4118-818: The rails in the Ralli. The cladogram below showing the phylogeny of the living and recently extinct Rallidae is based on a study by Juan Garcia-R and collaborators published in 2020. The genera and number of species are taken from the list maintained by Frank Gill , Pamela Rasmussen and David Donsker on behalf of the International Ornithological Committee (IOC). The names of the subfamilies and tribes are those proposed by Jeremy Kirchman and collaborators in 2021. Neocrex – crakes (2 species) Pardirallus – rails (3 species) Amaurolimnas – uniform crake Aramides – rails (8 species) Rallus – rails (14 species) Crecopsis – African crake Rougetius – Rouget's rail Dryolimnas – rails (2 species of which 1
4189-456: The related common gallinule ( Gallinula galeata ) of the Americas, the frontal shield has a fairly straight top and is less wide towards the bill, giving a marked indentation to the back margin of the red area. The common moorhen gives a wide range of gargling calls and will emit loud hisses when threatened. A midsized to large rail, it can range from 30 to 38 cm (12 to 15 in) in length and span 50 to 62 cm (20 to 24 in) across
4260-472: The relationships between various species. In most modern classifications, the so-called 'true ducks' belong to the subfamily Anatinae, which is further split into a varying number of tribes. The largest of these, the Anatini, contains the 'dabbling' or 'river' ducks – named for their method of feeding primarily at the surface of fresh water. The 'diving ducks', also named for their primary feeding method, make up
4331-544: The same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form taxon ; they do not represent a monophyletic group (the group of all descendants of a single common ancestral species), since swans and geese are not considered ducks. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds , and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes , gallinules and coots . The word duck comes from Old English dūce 'diver',
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#17328555726984402-417: The same time. Chicks become mobile after a few days. They often depend on their parents until fledging, which happens around 1 month old. Some larger, more abundant rails are hunted and their eggs collected for food. The Wake Island rail was hunted to extinction by the starving Japanese garrison after the island was cut off from supply during World War II . At least two species, the common moorhen and
4473-475: The season; a brood later in the year usually has only 5–8 or fewer eggs. Nests may be re-used by different females. Incubation lasts about three weeks. Both parents incubate and feed the young. These fledge after 40–50 days, become independent usually a few weeks thereafter, and may raise their first brood the next spring. When threatened, the young may cling to the parents' body, after which the adult birds fly away to safety, carrying their offspring with them. On
4544-712: The species is difficult. Some calls are territorial . The most typical family members occupy dense vegetation in damp environments near lakes , swamps , or rivers . Reed beds are a particularly favoured habitat. Those that migrate do so at night. Most nest in dense vegetation. In general, they are shy, secretive, and difficult to observe. Most species walk and run vigorously on strong legs, and have long toes that are well adapted to soft, uneven surfaces. They tend to have short, rounded wings, and although they are generally weak fliers , they are, nevertheless, capable of covering long distances. Island species often become flightless , and many of them are now extinct following
4615-431: 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 bill, there is a comb-like structure called a pecten . This strains the water squirting from the side of the bill and traps any food. The pecten is also used to preen feathers and to hold slippery food items. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily,
4686-461: The tribe Aythyini. The 'sea ducks' of the tribe Mergini are diving ducks which specialise on fish and shellfish and spend a majority of their lives in saltwater. The tribe Oxyurini contains the 'stifftails', diving ducks notable for their small size and stiff, upright tails. A number of other species called ducks are not considered to be 'true ducks', and are typically placed in other subfamilies or tribes. The whistling ducks are assigned either to
4757-563: The varieties of domestic ducks are descended from the mallard ( Anas platyrhynchos ), apart from the Muscovy duck ( Cairina moschata ). The Call duck is another example of a domestic duck breed. Its name comes from its original use established by hunters, as a decoy to attract wild mallards from the sky, into traps set for them on the ground. The call duck is the world's smallest domestic duck breed, as it weighs less than 1 kg (2.2 lb). Ducks appear on several coats of arms , including
4828-399: The wings. The body mass of this species can range from 192 to 500 g (6.8 to 17.6 oz). This is a common breeding and resident bird in marsh environments, rivers, well-vegetated lakes and even in city parks. Populations in areas where the waters freeze, such as eastern Europe, will migrate to more temperate climates. In China, common moorhen populations are largely resident south of
4899-531: Was complete. A consequence of lowered energy expenditure in flightless island rails has also been associated with evolution of their "tolerance" and "approachability". For example, the (non-Rallidae) Corsican blue tits exhibit lower aggression and reduced territorial defense behaviors than do their mainland European counterparts, but this tolerance may be limited to close relatives. The resulting kin-selecting altruistic phenomena reallocate resources to produce fewer young that are more competitive and would benefit
4970-407: Was inherited from Proto-Indo-European ; cf. Latin anas "duck", Lithuanian ántis 'duck', Ancient Greek νῆσσα / νῆττα ( nēssa / nētta ) 'duck', and Sanskrit ātí 'water bird', among others. A duckling is a young duck in downy plumage or baby duck, but in the food trade a young domestic duck which has just reached adult size and bulk and its meat is still fully tender,
5041-465: Was introduced (as Rallia) by the French polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1815. The family has traditionally been grouped with two families of larger birds, the cranes and bustards , as well as several smaller families of usually "primitive" midsized amphibious birds, to make up the order Gruiformes . The alternative Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy , which has been widely accepted in America, raises
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