The Australian Wood Duck (the ducks you usually see at the UQ duckpond) and how to distinguish the males from the females.
Males have the darker head and a small dark mane, with a speckled brown-grey breast and a black lower belly and undertail.
The females, however, have a paler head with two white stripes, above and below the eye, a speckled breast and flanks, with a white lower belly and undertail.
Therefore …
It seems like the left-most one is male while the one that's leading the family is female.
I'm glad we finally figured that out!
For more beautiful pictures of our lovely ducks, visit The UQ ducks.
Quack.
DUCKS HAVE A CIRCADIAN CYCLE OF 12 HOURS!
Cough. Okay. Let me explain. ORRRRRRRRRRRRR LET WIKI EXPLAIN!
A circadian rhythm is a cycle in the biochemical, physiological, or behavioural processes of living entities, including plants, animals, fungi and cyanobacteria.
The human circadian rhythm is actually around 25 hours. However, light adjusts this to 24 hours. So if you live in a cave that has absolutely no light, you'll find yourself living in a 25 hour cycle.
Now, most beings have a 24 hour-ish cycle. BUT DUCKS ONLY HAVE A 12 HOURS CYCLE!
OOOH THIS REMINDS ME:
When do ducks wake up?
AT THE QUACK OF DAWN!
The average duck measures 20 - 23 inches long.
OH MY GOSH I HAVE TO TELL YOU GUYS HOW TO TELL DRAKES AND DUCKS APART SOON! As in, other than from their colour. And their calls. There's another trick! Have I told you already? Eh, you'll get to hear it again next week if I have.
Just to make it clear:
Anatidaephobia is the fear that somewhere, somehow, a duck is watching you.
Anatidaephilia is where you're loving the idea that somewhere, somehow, a duck is watching you.
Choose wisely …
Okay. And now the actual trivia for this week:
Ducks have three eyelids.
Ducks cannot feel the cold in their feet even when swimming in icy cold water. Why, I hear you ask! Well … because their feet have no nerves or blood vessels in them!!!
Also, it takes 8 - 12 weeks for ducklings to reach adulthood. That would explain why the UQ ducklings are looking ducky!!! It's so cute how they have adult feathers mixed with the baby fuzz!!!!!
Quack.
Okay. Stuff I learnt at the UQ duck pond last week:
Ducks don't like strawberries;
There's a rumour that ducks like to eat tomatoes though;
The brown and white feathered ducks are WOOD DUCKS!;
DRAKES HAVE A CURLY TIP ON THEIR TAIL TO DISTINGUISH THEM FROM FEMALE DUCKS;
The ducks are truly beautiful;
There are some pretty crazy duck ladies that hang out at the UQ duck pond. And I'm not even referring to myself this time; and
Ducks. Are. Awesome.
I think that was it …
HAVE I MENTIONED HOW MUCH I LOVE DUCKS YET?
Quack.
The UQ ducks that have been named. And their description:
Mallory the Wood Duck;
Basil the Muscovy Drake (the black and white spotted duck. The big ones.);
Terrie the Muscovy Duck (white muscovy female);
Chestnut the blue-tipped-bill duck. With brown eyes (he's the only blue-tipped-bill duck with brown eyes);
Perry the Pekin Drake (the standard white duck. Male. So. So. So. Beautiful. I. Wish. He'd. Stay. Put. So. I. Could. Hug. Him. He's my favourite. Just quietly. BUT HE KEEPS ON WADDLING AWAY FROM ME :/)
Ducks don't like being chased around the trees by the UQ lakes. Also, apparently it may be illegal to feed the ducks … :/
Oh and also … Ducks can live 20+ years with good care and feeding!!! The world record is held by a Mallard drake that lived 27 years. YOU GO MALLARD :V :V :V Except you finished awhile ago … :/
…
DUCCKKKSSSSS!!!!!!!!
(teehee. I totally fibonacci-ed that :V :V :V)
Hokay. So you know how birds do this little headbop whenever they walk? WELL! I LEARNT WHY 'LAST' WEEK!
So we awesome humans can move our head around and still be able to see. Birds can't.
See (teehee!), we have great visual stabilisation. Again, because we're awesome. Birds, however, cannot see while their head is moving.
Accordingly, they stick their head out and then let their bodies catch up. This minimises head movement, which means that they can see for slightly longer periods of time.
These dudes explain it more thoroughly and technically. But YAH THAT'S WHY PIGEONS ARE SO CUTE WHEN THEY WALK!
And just in case people want duck-specific trivia (because clearly people ACTUALLY READ THIS SECTION!!!), ducks see colour! Which is great because colour is GOOOOOOD! I love colour. Rainbows are awesome. In fact, I've rainbow-fied the heading for this section. And I think it looks awesome. :V :V :V :V :V
Ducks are birds.
Okay okay, so I was joking :V :V :V
Ducks sleep with half their brains awake. They are more likely to sleep with one eye open when they are located on the edge of sleeping groups (I wish I could do that. Sleep with one eye open that is. Sounds cool). Not only that, but they can detect predators in less than a second. Don't you wish you were a duck now?
Generally, you can distinguish a drake from a duck by their colours. Like many animals, the males are prettier (in this case, more colourful). Take, for example, the peacock and the peahen. Gotta say, if reincarnation actually occurred and I didn't get my first preference (ducks… duhhh!), I'd definitely want to change sides and be a peacock. Actually, I'd change sides for ducks too …
Unless I'm mistaken, the reason for this (and by 'this', I mean how males are so much preeeeettier!) is because of their mating ritual …
Now … how did I get onto that subject? Oh right. For example … the mallard ducks one would generally picture (bright green head, white collar, brown/white body) are males while the female ones are dully coloured (brown and white). But they're still prettttty. Now if only I could figure out how to discern the two while they're ducklings …
OH! And the female ducks have a lovely 'quack', while the males have nasally calls. So Daffy Duck really shouldn't have been quacking.
Brought to you by someone other than Manda.
P.S. I wish I knew what the specific duck names for the UQ ducks are …
EDIT: Thanks to this awesome guy, 'we' now know the following:
the orange-beaked duck is a dusky moorhen; and
the white-beaked duck is a eurasian coot.
Still haven't solved the mystery of the cute brown and white ducks though. And the dusky moorhen's feet look unducky (was I incorrect to believe that all ducks had webbed feet? Arghhh waterfowl confuse me!!!)
EDIT 2: Drakes lose their colourful plumage after mating (since the point of the colourful feathers is, as I mentioned above, to attract the female ducks. They're technically called hens but it feels weird referring to ducks as hens …)! So maybe the lack of green-headed mallards at the duck pond is because of that …
Also, the two names listed above are not ducks. They're completely unrelated water birds. Gahhh I'm wasting so much trivia on this week!
The correct term for a flock of ducks is 'sord'. So, in a sentence … 'Damn I wish I could steal that sord of mallard ducks!' *cough*
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