Behold the duck.
It does not cluck.
A cluck it lacks.
It quacks.
It is specially fond
Of a puddle or pond.
When it dines or sups,
It bottoms ups.
– “The Duck” by Ogden Nash
In October 2018, a rare, multicolored duck took up occasional residence in New York City’s Central Park. Dubbed “Hot Duck” by the locals, the non-native Mandarin duck drew crowds until he stopped showing up in March of last year. How this native of eastern Asia made his way to the Big Apple remains unsolved, as does his sudden disappearance. But there is no mystery as to why people flocked to see Hot Duck. Certainly, his brilliant, fantastical feathers were a large part of his appeal but, arguably, there’s just something about a duck. The melodic trill of a songbird is a thrill but who doesn’t love to hear a quack in the wild?
Texas Ducks
In his poem, Ogden Nash describes a duck going bottoms up for food—that’s a diver. As described in “Dabblers vs. Divers”:
Diving ducks, or “divers,” are ducks that propel themselves underwater with large feet attached to short legs situated far back on the body. “Dabblers,” in contrast, have smaller feet and their legs are situated farther forward. While a few dabblers may occasionally dive to feed or to escape predators, typically they skim food from the surface or feed in the shallows by tipping forward to submerge their heads and necks.
Ten types of ducks make their home in Texas at least part of the year—both dabblers (aka puddle ducks) and divers.
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck. Described as a “boisterous duck with a brilliant pink bill and an unusual, long-legged silhouette,” this dabbler’s breeding season extends from late March to October and occasionally into November. The Black-bellied Whistling-Duck prefers nesting in cavities and will readily take to nest boxes. Historically favoring South Texas as a main breeding ground, this duck has been moving farther north thanks to adaptability to human-altered habitat.
Blue-winged Teal. This small dabbbler nests throughout Texas, but mostly concentrates in the Panhandle during breeding season. According to the Texas Breeding Bird Atlas, teal are one of the first ducks to migrate south in the fall, arriving in Texas in August and appearing in large numbers by September and, in February, teal that wintered in southerly areas begin returning to Texas where their flocks increase in size until March, after which most depart for their northern breeding grounds. In flight, “they reveal a bold powder-blue patch.”
Fulvous Whistling-Duck. Long-legged and cinnamon-hued, this dabbler is a “somewhat goose-like duck with a plump body and a slightly peaked head.” The Fulvous Whistling-Duck is “among the most widespread waterfowl in the world, found throughout tropical and subtropical areas of Africa, Asia and the Americas.” In Texas, they are relatively abundant and may be found along the coast and in south Texas. These typically summer residents reportedly start arriving between mid-February and the end of May.
Northern Pintail. Nicknamed the “greyhound of the air,” this dabbler is long and slender with long, narrow wings. According to Ducks Unlimited: “Pintails once were one of the most abundant ducks in North America but have suffered a disturbing decline since the 1950s. In 2009, the breeding population was estimated at 3.2 million birds, substantially below the North American Waterfowl Management Plan objective of 5.5 million. More than any other North American waterfowl species, the northern pintail population has suffered from persistent drought and loss of grassland habitat in the Prairie Pothole Region.” Some pintails can be found wintering in the Texas Panhandle and on the Gulf Coast of Texas.
Muscovy Duck. This “strange and warty-faced” dabbler is one of the oldest domesticated fowl species in the world, but it may be found in the wild in the lower Rio Grande Valley. As described by All About Birds: “the Muscovy Duck was already being kept by native people in Peru and Paraguay when the early Spanish explorers arrived. The word ‘Muscovy’ may refer to the Muscovy Company (incorporated in London in 1555), which transported these ducks to England and France.” The best months to see a wild Muscovy Duck is from April through November, although some Texas towns find they’re seeing them too often. In November 2019, the city of Pearland, Texas, said the ducks have become a nuisance for some residents and “addressing” said ducks was within the rights of the property owners.
Wood Duck. Despite a handsomeness that could give Hot Duck a run for his money—the Wood Duck is closely related to the Mandarin Duck—this dabbler was on the verge of extinction in the early 1900s “due to habitat loss from over-harvesting of timber, drainage of swamps and marshes, and excessive exploitation by man for its meat and feathers,” explains Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) in Managing for Wood Ducks in East Texas. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 helped this duck make a comeback by closing the season until 1941. According to TPWD, Wood Ducks are residents in Texas with breeders in the Panhandle generally moving southward in winter as other migrants arrive from the north to winter in the warmer parts of the state. Breeding in Texas occurs from mid-February to early September.
Redhead Mallard. Aptly named for its, well, red head, the Redhead Mallard is a diving duck. According to the Texas Breeding Bird Atlas, before 1974 only one nest of a Redhead had been reported in Texas. Today, per the atlas: “Redheads are uncommon to common migrants throughout Texas, arriving as early as September 3 with most present by mid-October. In winter they are common to abundant along the central and lower coast, especially in the Laguna Madre. They are also locally common in the rest of the state. Across North America most Redheads depart between late January and mid-March. Most breeding occurs from mid-May through August.”
Ruddy Duck. With their bright white cheeks, blue bills, and long, stiff tail that is often held erect, the breeding adult male Ruddy Duck is easy to identify. Ruddy Ducks are known for their courtship displays with the male bobbing his head while striking his bill against his breast which creates a faint droning sound and a froth of bubbles. These divers are common migrants and winter residents throughout Texas, arriving as early as August 8, with most present from October to April. Breeding season lasts from at least May to August.
Mottled Duck. Described by at least one frustrated (or impressed) duck hunter as “unequivocally the wariest and smartest of all ducks in Texas,” the Mottled Duck is the only dabbling duck in the continental U.S. that does not migrate. Found in coastal Texas, they are most numerous in the marshes east of Houston, but their numbers have been on the decline over the past half-century. As explained in the Texas Wildlife Association’s Mottled Duck resource, the declining numbers may be attributed to “habitat loss by development, conversion of rice fields into row crops, predation, (five times higher than hunting), land erosion, capricious precipitation, spent lead poisoning from the past (pre-1991), encroachment of brush and tallow trees, saltwater intrusion into freshwater ecosystems from channelization and sea level rise, and lack of sediment being deposited on the landscape due to watershed channelization.” Both sexes of the Mottled Duck “are mostly brown and buff, like a female Mallard but richer with a yellow bill and a black patch at the opening of the bill but richer with a yellow bill and a black patch at the opening of the bill.”
Bonus Duck! Not in Texas, but too cute not to share. In 2018, a photographer in Minnesota spotted a female Merganser Duck on Lake Bemidji with 76 ducklings swimming behind her. The Merganser would not have been able to successfully incubate more than 20 eggs, so where did the rest of the ducklings come from? As described by Smithsonian Magazine, the photographer “seems to have stumbled upon a crèche, the term used to describe a ‘daycare system’ where some species of baby birds separate from their parents and form a group supervised by a few adults” The crèche behavior “is unusual but not rare.” See the ducky daycare here.
