What is a male duck called a mallard drake? Methods for determining the sex of ducks. Briefly about the differences between adult ducks by external characteristics

Kira Stoletova

Every person, even those not related to farming and poultry breeding, knows that a drake and a duck are individuals of the opposite sex, belonging to the same species. Thus, the drake is a male duck, distinguished by its rather large size in relation to the female. For example, a female common egg- meat breed domestic duck reaches a maximum of 3.5 kg, while the male is capable of growing up to 5.

Ducks are very popular among poultry farmers in our country. Few people will say that they don’t like the large eggs with large bright yolks or the tender meat of this bird. However, it is important for poultry farmers to be able to immediately recognize what sex the ducklings are, because for good egg production and selection, the ratio between females and males should be 4:1. Anyone who has been breeding birds for several years will be able to determine what gender the chick is without much effort.

Sex determination in chicks

A male bird can be identified among older chicks even from a photo - even a child can handle this. The baby drake has variegated plumage, while the female’s feathers are gray and inconspicuous. But young animals begin to look this way at about 2 months. How to distinguish a drake from a duck when they are still just chicks?

The drake chick is more active. Anyone who lives in a village knows that if you lift the baby by the legs and leave it in a head-down position for some time, the female will be calm, and the male baby will turn his head and try to pull himself up to his legs. Of course, it is impossible to know for sure what gender the bird is, but there is still a certain probability.

The method that makes it possible to determine the sex of even a two-week-old baby with the greatest accuracy is the so-called “Japanese method.” It consists in the fact that you need to take the duckling with your left hand so that the chick’s head is turned towards the person holding it, and then carefully massage the anal passage of the cub. To do this, you need to slightly pull up the edge of the cloaca. If a small pseudopenis appears, this is a male cub. The female has a membrane-covered oviduct opening located on the left side of the cloaca. On palpation there are small round compactions. In the same way, gender is determined in geese.

Pseudopenis is a distinctive feature of drakes, since most males of other poultry species, such as roosters and turkeys, do not have it. This organ looks like a small fold up to 4 mm wide. Sometimes it can be detected in a cub simply by pulling the tail towards the back. This and the Japanese methods give an almost error-free result if you act carefully and correctly.

Differences between adult males

It is not at all difficult to distinguish an adult male from a female in a duck family. In addition to the fact that the drake is distinguished by its bright plumage, it is also much larger than a duck, weighing twice as much.

Drakes also differ from females in the following ways:

• A triangular beak with a growth at the tip; the duck's beak is trapezoidal.
• Massive and irregular shape heads with expansion from the forehead, in contrast to the rounded and small heads of females.
• The muscles of the legs are more developed, just like the muscles of the back and wings, which is why their bodies are longer and larger compared to the bodies of females.
• The feathers at the tip of the tail curl upward, forming a ring in some breeds
• Drakes, unlike ducks, do not quack, but make peculiar hissing sounds and whistles. The duck, with the help of its loud voice, calls ducklings and attracts males to mating season.
• Sustained immunity - drakes are less susceptible to the influence of pathogenic bacteria and viruses, remain strong and healthy longer
• Aggressive behavior. Males They often try to fly away or escape from their master’s house and fight for leadership.

Color of male ducks during mating season

Drakes are distinguished by their bright colors, which reach their peak intensity in winter and spring period- when ducks form pairs. For example, the male mallard, the ancestor of the domestic duck, has a remarkable dark green head color with iridescence, ending on the neck with a thin ring stripe. The back and wings are gray with brown markings, black rump, blue or purple mirror in the upper part of the wings. After molting, the drake differs from the gray duck only in its brown breast and yellow beak. It is better not to leave males in the same territory with laying hens also because the duck is a very timid mother, especially when the ducklings have just hatched and every chick counts for her.

Male Muscovy duck Most often they are dark in color with light inserts, but there are also completely white individuals. A distinctive feature of drakes of this breed is corals - abundant red growths on the head.

The mandarin duck, a small forest bird, has a distinctive crest on its head, a contrasting golden-brown back, and wings striped with white and purple.

Behavior of drakes during mating season

During the mating season, ducks and drakes of ordinary breeds behave equally actively. The ratio of ducks to drakes is 4 to 1, especially in the Muscovy breed. Ducks mature sexually earlier, so the male should be 1-1.5 months older. For breeding purposes, it is recommended to use drakes for 3 breeding cycles, after which the birds are no longer so good for procreation.

Under no circumstances should you force the molting process in males! The drake may lose potency and will not trample ducks and fertilize eggs. As a result, it will not leave offspring - and how much effort of the breeders will be wasted! To avoid such an unpleasant situation after egg laying, it is better to transplant it to recently moulted ducks.

Gr. FORESTRY - DRAKE

The drake is handsome!

Often, male musk ducks are used to breed so-called mulards. To do this, it is necessary that the female and male match each other in color. That is, if a musky male is gray, then the female of the usual breed selected for him should also be gray. But it is worth considering that musk drakes are very indifferent to fulfilling their “marital duty,” especially with females of other breeds, so most of the eggs may be unfertilized. For one such drake there are no more than 4 ducks.

According to the classification, the duck (Anatidae) belongs to the class of birds, the order Anseriformes, the family Anatidae and the genus of waterfowl.

Description of the duck

For all the numerous representatives of the Anatidae one can call character traits, distinguishing them from other birds:

• flattened and streamlined body;
• rather short neck;
• small head;
• a wide and flat beak with horny plates or teeth on the sides;
• the presence of a subcutaneous layer of fat;
• powerful paws equipped with membranes that resemble flippers.

Biological features of the duck

One more characteristic feature What distinguishes ducks from other bird species is the significant difference in the color of males and females. The male duck, the drake, in addition to being much larger than the female, has more variegated plumage. All representatives of ducks have a contrasting and bright spot on their wings, which is called a “mirror”. It serves so that birds of the same species can identify each other among other birds.

Due to the fatty lubricant secreted by the coccygeal gland, the outer plumage of the duck is waterproof. Thanks to this, waterfowl can take off even after long periods of “ water procedures».

Types of ducks

Ducks can be divided into two main groups: wild and domestic. In turn, wild ducks are divided into diving ducks, which obtain their food at the bottom of reservoirs, and river ducks, which obtain their food in shallow water. It is believed that domestic ducks had one common ancestor - the mallard.

All the variety of duck breeds bred by man can be divided into four classes: meat, meat-egg, egg and decorative.

The weight of meat breed drakes can reach four kilograms, and the average egg production of egg-class ducks exceeds 250 eggs per year.

Where do ducks live?

The distribution range of ducks is very wide. You will not find them only in the harsh conditions of Antarctica. The main condition for existence wild ducks is the presence of a body of water, since it is a source of food for these birds.

In addition, an obligatory factor is coastal vegetation (shrubs, reeds, wind-fallen trees, etc.), which hides the nest with masonry from prying eyes. It’s easier with representatives of poultry - they live where conditions have been created for them.

What does a duck eat?

When it comes to nutrition, representatives of the duck family are absolutely unpretentious and can easily adapt to circumstances. In early spring When the reservoirs are still covered with a crust of ice, ducks find food in the polynyas. Later, when the water is freed from winter shackles, duckweed, small fish and tadpoles, crustaceans and adults are added to the ducks’ diet. The latter helps to curb the uncontrolled reproduction of these insects.

Baby animals sometimes have names that aren't obvious, and you may have even asked yourself questions like:

• What is a female ferret called?
• What is the name of a female deer, wood grouse, giraffe, peacock, woodpecker, wild boar?
• What is the name of a baby seal, walrus, swan, sheep, elk, badger?
• What is the name of a male duck, squirrel, cuckoo, pig, panther?
• What is the name of baby animals? For example, elephants, eagles and so on.

In a word, in this article we have collected the names of females - mothers, males - fathers, as well as the names of baby animals, including animals (aka mammals), birds, fish, insects, reptiles and amphibians.

If you haven’t found someone, be sure to write about it in the comments, and we will add this material as soon as possible.

The collected material is presented in the form of a table with 4 columns. The first column is the name of the male, the 2nd is the name of the female, the 3rd is the name of the baby animal, and in the last column is the name of the baby animal in the plural.

Note also that there are both colloquial names , which are acceptable in speech, but use them in a scientific report, or when preparing an essay, it will be incorrect .

Names of baby animals

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 grey colour. 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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Very often we meet in wildlife or in the household of different birds, 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 necklace around his neck white, while feather shades 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 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.