Expert: Julia Booth - 3/5/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hi,

   I'm a novelist and need a bit of technical info on the mallard duck.  I
suppose this would apply to ducks in general, but this paragraph I'm
struggling with is about a family of mallards.

   I am aware that a young duck is called a duckling.  What about when the
duck is ready to "fly the coop" so to speak, is there a name for an
adolescent duck?  

   My concern is with the reader that really knows his/her fowl and will pick
up on my improper description of said duck...

ANSWER: This made me laugh.

First of all: a duck, in the general sense of the word, can refer to any number of species of waterfowl. Let me break it down for you in simple terms.

There are two kind of ducks, dabblers and divers. The mallard is a dabbler. That means that they spend the majority of their time above the water and tend to eat what they can find they. They do stick their heads underwater, though. Don't get me wrong.

The second category of divers actually dive under the water for their food (fish etc). They don't dive from the sky like terns do. This is different. They more like...submerge themselves like penguins. Some can stay under water for several minutes and swim great distances. They can be found both on the ocean and on smaller bodies of water.

The terms used to describe ducks as they age, varies depending on your book. When first hatched, they can be called ducklings or hatchlings. When they have grown and are almost ready to leave the nest, we call them fledglings. The process of "fledging" is what they go through as they prepare to leave their mother's immediate protection. Ducks actually extend this period of time out a littler further than other bird species -which you can and probably have observed. During the first year of their life, we call them juveniles. Some people consider them juvenile until they have mated for the first time, and then they are after that point considered adults. In some birds, the plumage varies as they grow, so we label them by saying things like "adult male: first year" or "second year."

It's the plumage that we tend to label them by, since we have no other practical way of knowing their age. Ducks have a winter and a summer plumage, one more attractive for breeding purposes. They go through a molt. But the plumage can also vary by age.

Mallards are unique in that they are the species of duck that almost all modern, domestic ducks are decended from. This is why you see funny looking ducks in parks, that have mallard traits mixed with other markings. Domestic ducks escape and mate with them. They are bio-compatable because they are so closely related.

I hope this helps.

Julia

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: One more quick question if you don't mind.  At what age can you tell the
difference between drakes and hens?

Answer
It depends on the species of duck and how close you are to them to be able to tell. Around 10 weeks of age, the voice of the female mallard is a loud quack (that quack that people have come to associate with ducks) while that of the male is soft and whispery. Later, when they develop their adult plumage the males have a curled feather (known as the drake feather) on top of the tail.

Sexing really depends on the species. Most ducks can be differentiated by the time their adult plumage grows in.