What is the name of a male duck? Who is a drake and how to distinguish it from a female. Description of wild males

Many duck breeds are difficult to separate into males and females. If you don’t delve into how to distinguish a duck from a drake by specific characteristics, it will be extremely difficult to determine. It will be especially difficult to identify the sex of small individuals. To define there are character traits not only in appearance, but also in behavior.

Briefly about the differences between adult ducks by external characteristics

It is very important to learn how to determine the sex of ducks, as this will help to select the desired ratio of females and males in the flock. Of course, the required ratio depends on the purpose of the poultry: for the purpose of obtaining meat, for egg production or breeding a new generation. In any case, the right selection will lead to increased productivity.

What external characteristics distinguish male ducks:

• bright plumage, more saturated than that of females;
• large parameters;
• the frontal bone is wide and triangular in shape;
• a crest is visible on the neck;
• large beak;
• feather beard.

The frontal part of the male immediately widens sharply from the beak, but the female duck has smooth features, and the frontal part has a trapezoidal shape.

Note! It is also worth knowing the name of a male duck - a drake. As a rule, they have larger parameters, but due to cultivation at home, exceptions are possible. Sometimes drakes grow smaller than ducks. This is due to the conditions and characteristics of the selected diet.

The main differences between musk duck drakes and females

Muscovy duck is popularly called musk duck. This breed By external signs significantly different from its other tribesmen: wide chest, powerful wings and limbs.

The name of the breed comes from the word “musk” for a reason. It is believed that representatives of this species in mature age They begin to secrete oil through their pores with a specific musky odor.

How to distinguish a duck from a drake

Musk birds are popular among poultry farmers for a number of reasons:

• nice delicate taste meat that is considered dietary;
• the possibility of using eggs in cooking;
• the Indian duck does not need to arrange a reservoir on the site;
• the birds are homebodies, which minimizes the risk of losing a member of the flock due to sudden departure.

External differences between drakes and ducks

Basic external differences male and female individuals of this breed do not differ from other species and are as follows:

• Size. A male duck is always larger than a female duck. The difference in weight can range from ½ kg to 1 kg. The drake's body is much wider, and rib cage more developed.
• Feather color. Drakes look more noticeable against the background of females. And this is not without reason, since the most important thing for a female is caring for and protecting her offspring, and bright color can only attract ill-wishers. Males have a very bright color that attracts females.
• Features of the neck structure. Females have a graceful and prominent neck, while in drakes this part of the body is more developed: strong and wide.

When Muscovy ducks reach three months of age, all of the listed external characteristics begin to appear, and it will be possible to determine their gender at first glance.

Important! Another very noticeable feature is the skin of the birds. In males it is coarser and has a rich bright red color. It even hangs slightly over the eyes of males.

How to distinguish females from drakes by behavior

When determining the sex of birds, it is worth paying attention to their behavior. The most important difference here is that the “husband” of the duck always lets his companion go ahead. This applies to both walking on water and flying. The drake stays behind or a little to the side. During the period when females hatch eggs, males alternately let each other pass ahead.

In addition, it is worth noting that drakes behave quite aggressively in a flock. They fight with other males for food or for the attention of females.

It is easy to isolate drakes during the breeding season. They acquire new plumage and treat their chosen ones with special care. New signs may appear that were previously invisible. These include a beard or mustache. To attract the attention of females, the drake constantly revolves around them and starts conflicts with other males. The mating season of ducks often involves singing and dancing.

Note! Not only the male can initiate the creation of a new “cell”. Sometimes females also push drakes to mate.

Of particular importance when determining the sex of ducks are the sounds that these birds make. Females have a loud voice, but males, as a rule, hiss. It is not for nothing that female ducks are endowed with a loud voice, because thanks to it they gather ducklings in a heap. But it is extremely rare to hear any sound from drakes.

Important! At wrong mode feeding and unfavorable conditions residence, same-sex couples can sometimes form. In such unions, the dominant female completely repeats the behavior of any male.

Disadvantages of determining sex by the appearance of a bird

Of course, the method of determining the sex of a bird by appearance has a number of disadvantages. And this is not surprising, since each breed has its own characteristics and distinctive features. This applies to such features as the size and muscles of birds, color and plumage, and behavior.

Also, do not forget that the listed features may change depending on the conditions of keeping the birds. For many poultry keepers, the color of the opposite sexes is not different at all, and the size of the males is much smaller than that of the female.

To accurately determine the sex of ducks, you need to combine several characteristics into one. Only an experienced livestock breeder can carry out such work.

Only an experienced livestock breeder can distinguish

How to determine the sex of a duckling

If everything is clear with determining the sex of adult ducks, then how to determine the sex of seemingly absolutely identical ducklings is not. This is very difficult because external differences Ducklings don't.

How can you distinguish ducklings by sex using the most common method:

• You need to very carefully take the chick by the paws and place his head down. In this position, the female will hang calmly and motionlessly, but the male duck will twist his head with all his might, trying to look at the space.
• Even small males quite aggressively try to constantly get into a fight and, in general, behave very actively.
• At a very young age (1 day), you can try to determine gender based on anatomical features. The drake is characterized by a spherical expansion in the lower part of the larynx. It is located at the beginning of the chest.

Little duckling

Thanks to the timely (early) determination of sexual characteristics, it becomes possible to fully develop and form the correct livestock. But using one method is not always enough. Experienced poultry farmers use 3 methods at once: the above-described palpation of the larynx, observation of the behavior of small ducklings and the Japanese method.

The latter method was developed in Japan back in the 20th century. A proportion of small day-old ducklings, goslings and chicks is suitable for it. The method consists of visually examining the cloaca and identifying the genital tubercle on the inner wall, which differs significantly in both shape and size in females and males. Currently, this method is particularly popular all over the world and is called ventsexing.

Important! The use of this method by inexperienced farmers risks injuring the small chick or contracting intestinal infections.

Ventsexing is carried out on ducklings aged from 6 to 16 hours. By this time they are already drying well, the umbilical cord is healed. A longer period leads to a gradual smoothing of sexual characteristics.

To determine the sex of a duckling using the Japanese method, you need to follow these steps:

1. take the chick and put it in left hand, directing to oneself;
2. give a tummy massage;
3. very carefully with your fingers right hand open the anus and turn it out;
4. the female has spherical growths in this place, but the boy is characterized by the presence of a rudimentary penis.

This method can accurately determine the sex of a bird, but it is only suitable for experienced poultry farmers. After all, the technology requires extreme accuracy and experience in conducting inspections.

Features of sex determination in different ducks

For some duck breeds, the listed differences do not always help determine the sex. Especially it concerns external characteristics birds.

Breed favorite

Most often, ducks of the Favorite breed have dull colored feathers, while drakes are brighter and more noticeable. They are characterized by a bright color and a crest of long beautiful feathers. In addition, males have a long beard. Their sizes are much smaller than females. You can also distinguish the sex by the back of the bird: the curled tail, which always catches the eye, indicates that it is a male.

When determining the sexual characteristics of favorites, you should also pay attention to the following signs:

• behavioral characteristics of animals: during walking, males of any breed let the duck go ahead, while they themselves remain behind;
• the females in the herd behave calmly and restrained, but the males are active and start conflicts with other males;
• female ducks are less susceptible to diseases, but males have less stable immunity;
• in flight, the female stays ahead of the male.

Of course, the listed characteristics cannot exactly guarantee that a certain representative of the favorite breed belongs to one gender or another. Accurate distribution will require the experience and knowledge of the farmer.

Domestic ducks

Bashkir

An adult duck of the Bashkir breed has a dense, elongated body, which is covered with feathers and down. Paws are short, strong, colored Orange color. The chest is concave forward, the head is located on a fairly short neck. The beak of Bashkir females is flattened and has a yellowish tint.

Small Indo-ducklings have absolutely the same appearance regardless of gender: brown color for the colored breed and white-yellow color for the white breed. Therefore, at this age it is not possible to determine gender by external signs.

At the age of 4.5 weeks, the drake's plumage begins to acquire a sulfur-gray hue. The female remains brown. Therefore, a male can be distinguished not only by its large parameters, but also by its distinctive bright color. Thanks to these characteristics, Peking ducks can also be distinguished.

By color

But how to distinguish a Bashkir duck from a drake? white, because the differences in appearance They dont have? Here you can only rely on size and voice. Adult ducks quack loudly, but the male only makes hoarse sounds in response.

Mandarin duck

For mandarin ducks, sex determination is not difficult. Males can be seen even from afar, as their plumage is particularly bright. Females have less bright plumage, but despite this, they look very elegant and beautiful.

For such a significant difference, there is a certain period - marriage. Upon completion, the males lose their bright color and look less provocative.

For your information! During molting, all male mandarin ducks flock together and try to hide from prying eyes.

Mallard

The difference between a mallard and any other duck is that it is able to adapt to different weather conditions. In addition, this species has the largest size.

The duck and drake are significantly different from each other, so many do not consider them to be the same species. It is precisely such inexperienced poultry farmers who are looking for an answer to the question: what is the name of a male duck of this breed. Therefore, there will be no problems with determining gender:

• The plumage of the female mallard is discreet Brown color, allowing her to camouflage herself in wildlife. The belly has a more saturated color. The beak is olive or dark grey colour, and the paws are red.
• Male mallards look more colorful. The head and neck are dark green. There is also a prominent border visible on the neck. The breast is chestnut, the beak is olive, and the legs are orange.

The little ducklings are all the same and have a discreet brown color.

Determining the sex of a duck is most often carried out based on external and behavioral characteristics. But this method is not always effective. After all, such data depends on the breed of birds, their living conditions and nutrition. For ducklings, this method is not at all effective, since at birth they are all the same. To distinguish a drake from a duck, you will need experience and knowledge about these birds, which is briefly presented above.

Ducks and geese are waterfowl. There are a lot of them, and they live all over the world. These birds have dense plumage, which helps retain heat, and webbed feet perfectly adapted for swimming.

Duck- this bird is small in size with a short neck and tarsus, covered in front with transverse scutes, it comes from the order Newopalatines, the order Anseriformes, and the family Anatidae. There are about 110 species of these birds in the world. The colors of ducks can be either monotonous or several colors. The most common ducks are white or gray.
All types of ducks weigh from 2 to 5 kilograms depending on age. They have short legs, on which they waddle funny when walking. The paws have three webbed front toes and a free rear toe. Most duck species live in fresh water. They feed on insects, worms and all sorts of plant foods. Male ducks are called drakes. They have bright plumage that attracts females. The feathers of females are beige-brown.

In villages and villages you can find Peking ducks. Males weigh an impressive 4 kg, while females weigh 3.5 kg. They can lay up to 120 eggs in a year. Young ducks gain weight in just 60 days.

One of the best ways raising ducks is duck(mother hen), who swims along the pond with her brood, searches for natural and naturally pure food, trains and protects the ducklings.
The most common ducks are: Mallard, Gray Duck, Pintail, Wigeon, Teal, Whistling Teal, Shoveler, Red-headed Pochard (Blue Duck), Tufted Duck, White-eyed Pochard.

Goose belongs to the class of birds, subclass of neopalates, order of Anseriformes, family of Anatidae, subfamily of Anseriformes and genus of geese. Geese are usually larger than ducks and have longer necks. Geese have rather large beaks, which they use to pull grass out of the ground. The beak of ducks is flatter - it is convenient for them to catch food from the water.
Geese, unlike other birds, have a beak that is orange or gray. The beak has greater height, but its width is not large, the end of the beak is expressed by a nail with a sharp edge. There are small teeth along the edges of the beak. Geese have a neck, but it is not as long as swans, they also have tall legs that are colored orange or gray, and their feet are a bit like flippers, which allows them to float on water.

Geese have a large number of feathers and down. The main difference between males and females is only a bone growth (“hump”) at the beginning of the beak at the bridge of the male’s nose, as well as a slightly larger body size.

Almost all types of geese cackle or make muttering sounds; when in danger or irritation, they hiss and can bite. The most common geese are: wild geese, greylag geese, Bean goose, Canada goose, White-fronted geese, White geese, White-breasted goose, Red-breasted goose, Brent goose, African geese.

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In many breeds, the differences between a duck and a drake are not obvious. If you don’t know what signs to look for, it is impossible in most cases to separate males from females; it is especially difficult to determine the sex of ducklings. However, there are characteristic features of appearance and character that allow you to distinguish a duck from a drake. Once you have learned to reliably determine the sex of ducks, in the future you can always do this without much difficulty.

It is very important to be able to determine the sex of a bird, since it is necessary to correctly select the ratio of drakes and ducks in the population. Ideal quantities of the first and second when grown for meat and for obtaining large quantity eggs for the purpose of producing offspring are different, but in both cases, the correct selection of proportions will help increase productivity to the maximum.

The plumage of the drake is brighter than that of ducks

The photo shows a male and a female Muscovy duck

Drakes wild duck have bright plumage.

Characteristic external differences of drakes:

• brighter plumage than females;
• larger sizes;
• the wide forehead has the shape of a triangle;
• a tuft of feathers on the neck;
• large beak;
• feather beard.

Despite the fact that drakes are characterized by larger sizes, when kept at home this rule is not always followed. Sometimes the male may be smaller than the female; this largely depends on the conditions of detention and diet. The drake's forehead expands sharply upward from the beak, while in females its outline is smoother, and its shape is closer to a trapezoid.

Reference. A portable device that generates ultrasound can help quickly determine the sex of ducks. Experimentally, you can select a frequency on it that will be unpleasant for individuals of a certain sex. In this case, when you turn on the device, they will move to the side.

Another way to determine the sex of a duck is to observe its behavior. The drakes let the females go ahead, staying behind and slightly to the side.

They also usually stand out for their noisiness and pugnacity. This behavior is especially characteristic of the dominant male in the herd, who always strives to emphasize his dominant position.

At the same time, he will direct his aggression towards other males. Ducks, unlike drakes, do not strive for conflicts; they have a calm character and try to fly away much less often.

However, it is not always possible to correctly determine gender based on these features. If the herd has an incorrect ratio of drakes to ducks - and the ideal proportion is 1:4 - females may behave like males, and vice versa. Behavioral features, like appearance traits by which gender can be determined, appear only in the second or third month of life.

Determining by sexual characteristics is the most accurate way to find out whether you are looking at a drake or a duck. In this way, you can even find out the sex of one-day-old chicks. You need to take the bird and put it on its back, and then with the other hand carefully grasp the skin from the cloaca towards the abdomen.

The male will have a small rudimentary penis, or pseudopenis, and the female will have two round spherical growths. Despite the apparent simplicity of this method, it is quite difficult to master, but after gaining some experience, every poultry farmer can cope with this task.

The difference between a male and his voice

Gender can also be determined by voice. Females are much noisier, they quack sharply and loudly. While for males a quiet hissing hiss is more typical. With this simple way You can fairly reliably distinguish a drake from a duck, but you shouldn’t rely on it alone.

Important. To definitely avoid confusion when determining gender, you should always focus on several methods.

Since differences in appearance and behavior become clearly visible only in the third month of life, determining the sex of ducklings is especially challenging. difficult task. It is best to use the method described above, which involves examining the genitals.

The accuracy of this method is about 99%, but some experience is required to use it. Beginner poultry farmers often find it difficult to cope with this task. Once you know the sex of the ducklings, for your own convenience, you can attach tags to them so that in the future you will always know whether it is a male or a female.

Many breeds have their own characteristic features that can be used to distinguish a drake from a duck:

It is often very difficult to determine the sex of a duck based on one or two of the above characteristics. In the case of domestic ducks, due to housing and feeding conditions, females often acquire certain traits of males, and vice versa. Therefore, it is not surprising that even farmers who have been keeping ducks for several years are sometimes confused about this issue.

As a result, the ratio of birds of one sex to another in their flock is far from ideal, resulting in a drop in productivity, and some poultry farmers are trying to produce offspring in a situation where in fact there are only males or only females in their flock. To avoid such mistakes, it is necessary to determine gender not by one, but by several characteristics.

In the video, a farmer shares simple and effective way How to distinguish a drake from a duck.

After the problem is solved, a special mark can be attached to the duck, which will avoid confusion in the future. With a careful and responsible approach to business, you will always know how many ducks and drakes are among your livestock, and this will allow you to get maximum amount meat and eggs.

Very often we meet different birds in the wild or in the home, but it is not always possible to determine not only their breed, but also their gender. Although this can sometimes be very difficult to do, there are still various signs that allow us to understand whether the duck in front of us is a male or a female. And it is about the male sex of ducks that you will learn below. After all, these are the most beautiful birds.

First of all, you need to understand that ducks are waterfowl and are considered ancient relatives of swans. A few centuries ago, hunting for wild birds, but not only because sporting interest, and also because delicious meat and high quality down. If we talk about male field of this bird, it is called a drake and has a number of small differences from the female.

Although drakes, like ducks, differ from their distant relatives in their smaller size. After all, their body length is no more than 35 cm, although musk drakes this figure fluctuates around 85 cm. And all this is demonstrated by the photo below.

Their average weight about 3 kg, but everything, of course, depends on the species. The down of ducks, and in particular drakes, is very thick and dense, so they tolerate low temperatures. Also, these birds quickly get used to their habitat, and due to the structure of their necks they can easily dive and swim. Therefore, most drakes obtain food under water. One more distinctive feature This type of bird can be called that due to their special flight, they have the opportunity to settle in places that are not accessible to others.

Appearance

It is worth noting that the difference between a female and a male is mainly represented by different colors of plumage. Drakes differ from females in having brighter and more colorful feather colors, while ducks are colored in more gray and camouflage shades. It is also worth mentioning that their size is a little larger, and the beak is not only yellow, but also red, blue and black. The male of any species has a white necklace on his neck, while the shades of feathers can be yellow and green.

Females choose their future mate based on how bright the duck’s beak is and it is desirable that it be yellow. Another feature that is inherent only to male ducks is that they have a special crest, which is also designed to draw the female’s attention to this particular male and make her the future mother of his ducklings.

Habits

During the period when the time comes to build a nest and have offspring, drakes attract the attention of their future females precisely with the help of their variegated feathers. It is also worth noting that despite their silence throughout their lives, when drakes are looking for a female, they behave quite loudly.

Special distinctive quality

In drakes, unlike other species of birds and males, one can see features not only in appearance and behavior, but also in anatomical structure birds. It is in drakes that in the walls of the cloaca there is a large penis, which you cannot immediately recognize, since it is modified, but quite impressive in size.

It can also turn outward, but this happens only during nesting and in mating season. Although it is this organ that makes the bird’s flight difficult and complicates its life, because its size is sometimes equal to the body length of a male duck, no matter what kind it is.

Meaning in nature

Besides the fact that drakes are engaged in fertilization of their females, they have practically no special meaning other than excellent and healthy meat and warm, thick fluff. What does it have to do with the fact that it is used in the manufacture of clothing. Although it is worth noting that some species of male ducks are used to make homeopathic medicine for sick and needy people.

To many poultry farmers and residents rural areas It is important to be able to distinguish a drake from a duck. At first glance it seems that this is impossible. This is especially difficult to do with newly born ducklings. People who have been raising this bird for a long time can determine the sex quickly and without errors.

There are a lot of recommendations and tips on the Internet on how to distinguish a drake from a duck. When it all comes down to practice itself, it becomes clear that in fact, there are not so many differences, especially when it comes to chicks. Let's find out what methods are used to identify the sexes of ducks.

Indian girls. Duck or drake?

Main advantages and differences in appearance

Why do you need to distinguish ducks by gender? In fact, experienced farmers farm according to gender.

What exactly is taken into account:

• female ducks do not strive to fly away, unlike males, they are not conflicting;
• males have strong immunity;
• the male duck is hardier than the female, more resistant to disease;
• drakes weigh much more than females;
• Egg productivity will depend on the sex ratio (1:4) - there should be more females.

In terms of sexual dimorphism, ducks differ in their plumage. Like many animals, the female does not have a bright color, most often it is gray and dull color of feathers. The male, on the contrary, is gifted by nature with bright and colorful colors to attract the opposite sex. The drake has a long and bright crest on its neck. One of the differences is the beard, which female ducks lack.

The tail is also slightly different. If you look closely at the very tip, you will notice that in males the feathers are curled upward (usually this is the tail of the Peking and Bashkir breeds), while in females the tail is straight. Males begin to curl their feathers from the age of 3 months. The drake weighs almost twice as much as the female. So, if the male weighs about 5 kg, then the female weighs up to 3 kg. The drake's forehead is wider, and the beak resembles a triangle. Females have a trapezoidal expansion.

Additional external differences between females and males:

• the beak of drakes has a growth located upward;
• the bones of the forehead are more massive in males, expanding from the beak;
• the head of females is rounder than that of males;
• the neck of females is shorter and thinner;
• the body of females is narrower;
• the leg muscles are not as developed as in males.

It happens that external differences are practically not noticeable. This will depend on the conditions in which the birds are kept and their diet. It even happens that females are found larger than males. It is also not always possible to indicate the exact sex of ducks by plumage. Color depends on the species and breed. For example, domestic ducks are characterized by the same color for both males and females - white.

Behavior of males and females: what is the difference

In a flock of ducks, you can notice that the weaker sex is not the leader and always goes somewhere to the side or behind. This happens both in flight and while walking. Poultry farmers often notice aggression from drakes. Dominants often fight for food or females with other males. Experienced farmers have learned to distinguish a drake from a duck by its voice: the loud quack of a female is difficult to confuse with the hissing and whistling of a duck.

Muscovy ducks (drake - top)

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In small chicks, sex is more difficult to determine. It is usually only at 10-12 weeks of age that sexual dimorphism begins to appear. For many poultry farmers, gender is an important consideration when purchasing birds. Therefore, many have adapted to using a special ultrasonic device that can attract individuals of only one sex.

If you hold a duckling upside down by its paws, the female will be motionless, and the young drake will make attempts to look around. Of course, this does not guarantee gender determination, but it’s worth a try.

If ducks are not fed correctly and kept in inappropriate conditions, same-sex pairs can form. The dominant female can even completely copy the behavior of the drake. Males can also form pairs with each other. This is why the behavioral method of differentiation is unreliable.

Differences by gender

It turns out that if you really want to, you can even distinguish the sex of day-old chicks. To do this, you need to take the duckling with your left hand (head towards you) and massage its anal passage. If a small pseudopenis appears (about 3 mm in size), then you probably have a young drake in your hands. If nothing like this appears, then it is a female. In female representatives, small balls (like growths) will be visible.

Duck or drake - sex determination

This method is called Japanese. It gives a 98% guarantee. But everything will depend on the correctness of the process. Only an experienced specialist will be able to determine the gender using this method with 100% accuracy.

When a farmer knows how to distinguish ducks by various characteristics, he begins to rationally plan nutrition, feed distribution, and egg productivity. All this knowledge influences the reproduction of the bird; development depends on it. meat direction or egg.

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Video: Determining the sex of goslings (similar with ducklings)