Ducks are the garden gifts

Ducks live on the water or close to it. They are found on & around all continents except Antarctica. There are freshwater ducks & saltwater ducks, ducks of coastal waters & ducks of the open sea. Many ducks are migratory, meaning that they travel long distances for different seasons. Northern ducIn the wild or raised by people, ducks are familiar birds around the world. About 40 species, or types, live in North America alone. Ducks, geese, & swans are known as waterfowl in North America & wildfowl in Europe. Ducks are the smallest of the waterfowl.ks, for example, fly south for the winter. Ducks can be grouped according to their feeding & nesting behavior. Those that feed by dipping the head below the surface while tipping up the tail are called dabbling ducks. Dabbling ducks live in marshes, shallow ponds, & slow-moving streams. They feed on the water plants, shellfish, & insects that they find in the shallows. Some of them also feed on l&. The mallard is the best known of the dabbling ducks. The black duck of North America & the teals, wigeons, pintails, & shovelers are also dabbling ducks. Dabbling ducks that nest in trees are called perching ducks. The wood duck of North America, the m&arin duck of China, & the big muscovy duck of South America are perching ducks.Ducks that dive far below the surface are known as diving ducks. Some diving ducks are sea ducks. These ducks feed mostly on fish & sometimes sleep on the water. Mergansers, scoters, goldeneyes, & eiders are among the sea ducks. Other diving ducks stay close to the shore & are called bay ducks, or pochards. The canvasback is a bay duck that eats mostly water plants. Other bay ducks, such as the scaup, prefer shellfish. Not all diving ducks are saltwater birds. The stifftail group includes many freshwater divers. The ruddy duck is the most familiar North American stifftail.Dabbling ducks nest mostly in northern regions & fly south in autumn. They are fast fliers. By contrast, some of the diving ducks of South America cannot fly at all. They are called steamer ducks because they run on the water with their wings churning like the paddles of old-fashioned steamboats. Other diving ducks, such as the ruddy duck, find it almost impossible to walk on l&. Ducks are like geese & swans in many ways. All three kinds of waterfowl have large bills & webbed feet. Their bodies are protected from cold by soft inner feathers called down. Their outer feathers are protected from water by oil that comes from a gl& near the tail. But ducks are smaller than the other waterfowl, & they have shorter necks in proportion to their bodies. The legs of ducks are positioned to move the bird smoothly through water, which is why ducks waddle comically on l&.Ducks vary in size & color. The familiar mallard of North America, Europe, & Asia is about 24 inches (61 centimeters) long, including the tail. Mallards usually weigh less than 3 pounds (1.4 kilograms). Male ducks, known as drakes, are often much more colorful than the females. The males of the wood duck & m&arin duck species have especially splendid feathers. Ducks have been domesticated—kept & bred by humans—for thous&s of years. Many people value ducks for the meat, eggs, & down they provide. The down is used to make warm clothing & bedding.The duck is a popular game animal. Largely because of hunting, the Labrador duck became extinct in the late 1800s, & other ducks are now rare. Governments in some countries now keep track of wild ducks & control hunting. People who want to hunt waterfowl in the United States are required to buy a special stamp. Some of the money the government gets from selling the stamp is used to maintain breeding habitats.Most ducks make their nests on the ground, near water. They use plants, grass, & down from their own bodies to line the nest. Once the eggs are laid, the drake has nothing more to do with raising the family. The female tends the 6 to 12 eggs, keeping them covered with down while she is away from the nest. The eggs hatch into fluffy ducklings in about 20 to 25 days.The ducklings can feed themselves & swim soon after birth. Within a day or so, their mother leads them to the water in a little parade. She stays close to the ducklings & protects them until their flight feathers grow in. By the time the young ducks make their first long flight to their wintering grounds, they are completely on their own.The parents & other adults lose their flight feathers as their breeding season ends. For a few weeks afterward they are unable to fly. At this time drakes usually grow a duller coat of feathers, which they keep for a few months before the more colorful feathers grow back in at breeding time. Ducks kept by people have lived 20 years, but the average life span in the wild is much shorter.