What is the name of the female duck. Baby animals. Biological features of a duck

Duck (Anatidae) according to the classification belongs to the class of birds, the order of Anseriformes, the family of ducks and the genus of waterfowl.

Duck Description

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

• flattened and streamlined body;
• rather short neck;
• small head;
• 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 a duck

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

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

duck species

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

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

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

Where do ducks live?

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

In addition, coastal vegetation (shrubs, reeds, wind-blown trees, etc.) serves as an obligatory factor, which hides a nest with masonry from prying eyes. With representatives of poultry it is easier - they live where conditions have been created for them.

What does a duck eat?

In 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 polynyas. Later, when the water is freed from winter shackles, duckweed, small fish and tadpoles, crustaceans and adults are added to the diet of ducks. The latter helps to restrain the uncontrolled reproduction of these insects.

To be able to determine the sex of ducks is necessary for both hunters and farmers. During the hunting period, shooting of drakes is allowed. Females are left so that they can later breed, increasing the number of livestock within their breed. Farmers raise ducks for both meat and eggs. Males gain weight faster. For a short period of fattening, they show the best productivity.

For meat production, it is preferable to breed males rather than females. At the same time, females are taken for the production of duck eggs. Males in poultry farms are kept to create bird families, to obtain hatching eggs. How to distinguish a duck from a drake? What do you need to pay attention to?

More than 150 species of ducks live in nature. Some of them are commercial. Drake ducks wild breeds distinguished by their bright plumage. IN mating season the color of their feathers becomes saturated, bright. Females, on the contrary, are modest in their attire. Most often it is monophonic, gray, brown, red. Feathers form an ornament on the body that is inherent in a particular breed.

In the spring, drakes shed their bright outfit and become like a female. In this case, the size of the individuals takes place. Males are always larger than females. During the winter molt, they are again covered with a beautiful feather, which persists until the mating season. Ornithologists note distinctive features in individuals of different sexes:

Experienced hunters and ornithologists can recognize the drake and the female by their voice. Ducks most often quack abruptly. Males can hiss, whistle, crackle, display intricate trills. It is especially important to pay attention to the voice wild birds after the spring molt, when the drakes lose their bright feather.

Characteristics of domestic ducks

Farmers need to know how to tell males from females in a duck population. This will allow them to properly form a herd and assign an appropriate diet. To determine the sex of ducks of domestic breeds, external differences between a drake and a female.

This is especially evident in the spring, during the mating season. The male duck is bright. His behavior is active. Males begin courting females. They spread their wings, attracting ducks with their bright plumage. By the behavior of birds in a flock, one can distinguish the sex of individuals.

In some ducks of domestic breeds, there is a clear sexual dimorphism in plumage color. Gender differences are visible in the photographs provided on the Internet:

• muscle ducks. The main differences of the breed are growths around the eyes and at the base of the beak. In the drake, they are bright red in color, look like large warts. In ducks, the growth is small, has a pinkish tint. The plumage of the male is black and white. Head and chest are cast in green. Females are uniformly variegated;
• khaki campbell. The plumage of birds is light brown. The boy can be recognized by the dark feather on his head and by the light wings. Girls are uniformly brown;
• Bashkir duck. Looking at the images of birds, it is not immediately possible to recognize domestic ducks in them. The bird pair is more like a mallard family. Individuals have an identical plumage color. Getting to know them better, distinctive features are clearly visible. Domestic ducks are much larger, weighing more than 4 kg.

Unfortunately, it is not always possible to determine the sex of birds by external signs, by the color of feathers. There are individuals with snow-white plumage. It is difficult to recognize a female and a male in the following breeds: Agidel, Moscow White, Beijing, Cherry Valley. How, in this case, to compose a duck meat and egg herd? Experts resort to the Japanese technique. It allows you to determine the sex of individuals from birth. On external signs are not paying attention. The down of chicks looks the same in ducks of most breeds.

According to the Japanese method of determining the sex of ducklings, it is proposed to inspect the cloaca of individuals and find the genitals. They are poorly developed, but anatomical differences in chicks can be detected. How to distinguish a duck from a drake by primary sexual characteristics? In the male, a protruding tubercle is clearly visible on the inner wall of the cloaca on the left. It is oblong. These are the beginnings of the penis. When examining females, no tubercles are visible.

The fallopian tube is closed by a membrane. It is a thin skin growth. An experienced specialist in an hour can determine the sex of 600 chicks with great accuracy. Inexperienced poultry farmers will need some time and skill to inspect the cloaca of ducklings. What actions need to be implemented by households, how to determine the sex of chicks:

1. take the chick in your hands. Put it on the palm, back down;
2. perform a light massage of the lower abdomen;
3. lightly press on the stomach. The mucosa of the inner wall of the cloaca will appear;
4. inspect the left inner wall;
5. the male will have a process 2 mm long;
6. the female has a fallopian tube on the left. It will show a smooth mucous wall.

You need to act carefully. Press on the stomach slightly, slightly pushing the mucous membrane. Otherwise, there is a risk of extrusion of the intestinal walls from the cloaca, which can lead to the death of the duckling. Experts advise contacting a veterinarian for help. This technique is used in determining the sex of geese, turkeys, chickens.

Palpation of the larynx

There is another way to determine the sex of birds. Anatomical differences in the structure of the larynx are noticeable between ducklings of different sexes. The duck drake has an extension on the larynx. It has the shape of a ball. Females do not have this feature. You can detect a spherical expansion using palpation:

1. the duckling is picked up. Lay belly on the palm;
2. with one hand they stretch out his neck;
3. with the other hand, they probe the expansion in the upper part of the chest;
4. The procedure is painless and safe.

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

First of all, you need to understand that ducks are waterfowl and are considered to be old relatives of swans. A few centuries ago, hunting for wild birds was very popular, but not only because of sports interest, and also because of tasty meat and high quality down. If we talk about male field 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 musky drakes this figure fluctuates around 85 cm. And all this is shown in 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 because of the structure of the neck, they can easily dive and swim. Therefore, most drakes get food under water. One more hallmark of this kind of birds it can be said that because of their special flight they have the opportunity to settle in those places that are not accessible to others.

Appearance

It is worth noting that the difference between the female and the male is mainly represented by different plumage colors. Drakes differ from females in their brighter and more colorful feather colors, while ducks are painted in more gray and camouflage shades. It is also worth mentioning that their size is slightly larger, and the beak is not only yellow, but also red, blue and black. A male of any kind has a necklace around his neck. white color, at a time when shades of feathers can be yellow and green.

Females, on the other hand, choose their future couple, 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 attention of the female 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 colorfully colored feathers. It is also worth noting that despite their silence throughout their lives, during the time when the drakes are looking for a female, they behave quite loudly.

Special distinctive quality

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

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

Value in nature

In addition to the fact that drakes are engaged in the fertilization of their females, they practically do not carry any special significance, except for excellent and healthy meat and warm thick fluff. At what such that it is used in the manufacture of clothing. Although it is worth noting that some species of male ducks are used to make a homeopathic remedy for sick and people in need.

The male duck - the drake - belongs to the same species as the female, but it is not difficult to distinguish them visually. This can be done by both a professional (hunter, farmer or duck breeder), and a simple layman. To determine who is female and who is male, just look at the color of the bird's plumage.

The male duck, the drake, belongs to the same species as the female.

Usually domestic ducks, which are familiar to humans, have to be distinguished, but other species can also be found in nature. For example:

• Bashkir breed;
• musky;
• mergansers;
• river;
• Indians.

In order to visually distinguish a male from a female, you should pay attention to the size of the bird. Females are somewhat smaller and can weigh up to 3.5 kg, while the male is larger, more powerful, has more weight(about 4 kg).

The male is also distinguished by a brighter color to attract and charm females during the mating season. the main task ducks are a continuation of the genus, so they are distinguished by dull gray plumage, so that in conditions wildlife or in the household not to attract attention, to protect eggs and chicks. Among the others external differences, which you need to pay attention to in order to distinguish a duck from a drake, it is worth noting the following:

1. The male has a crest on his neck, in which there are bright, long feathers.
2. The presence of a beard in a drake.
3. Males have rounded feathers at the end of the tail, while females have a straight tail.
4. The long neck, head, wide body help to recognize the drake at first sight.
5. The male has a wide forehead, which begins to expand from the beak (triangular shape). In females, this part of the body looks like a trapezoid.

Attention must also be paid to the sounds that the bird makes. Quacking usually comes from the female, and only hissing from the drake. The quacking of ducks is always loud - this is how it attracts ducklings, and the voice of the male can rarely be heard.

Hunters, for example, recommend paying attention to how the male behaves among others. Drakes can let the females go forward, while they themselves stay behind. Only when the duck begins to incubate the eggs do the males let each other pass on water bodies or when flying.

Gallery: drake and duck (25 photos)

Differences between a duck and a drake (video)

Sexual characteristics at an early age

With ducklings, the situation is somewhat different. Only at 2-3 months you can see the differences. On farms, ultrasound is used to separate ducklings. Only individuals of one sex react to a certain frequency, while others are afraid of signals and try to hide. This method is used to distinguish females from males and seat them in different cages.

Mallard offspring can be turned upside down. If the duckling looks around, then it will be a male, and the female will just hang without moving. Behavioral moments are very important, but it is worth considering their certain subjectivity. For example, the leader drake is already visible in early age: he fights, does not let other males near the “girls”, makes more noise than others, that is, he tries in every possible way to stand out.

But females can also differ in dominant behavior. They can also imitate behavior during mating, which is associated with the joint keeping of ducklings. The behavior of females can also be characteristic of drakes, so you should not focus only on the behavior of chicks at an early age.

Help can be provided by examining the chick. The drake has a small penis that looks like a few folds. The organ is visible if you press a little on the anus. In ducks, this organ is not developed. Therefore, experts examine the genitals of ducklings already on the 8th day after hatching.

The drake can be defined in another way. For example, raising the tail and pointing it towards the back. Thus, in representatives of ducks, the genital organ is visible. If it is not there, then this is a female duck or indo-duck.

Mallard males and females (video)

Determining the sex of an indo

Indo-duck drake (as the large breed is called) will look different from the offspring of ordinary mallards. Boys are larger than girls, and this can be seen visually a few days after the chicks have hatched. Behaviorally, all males are the same. They are pugnacious, brisk, nimble, the male is the first to be near the drinker or feed, pushing the others. But it is worth paying attention to how other ducklings treat the male. If they listen to him, then this is a clear leader, who will then lead the pack.

In the event that a male chick is chased, then he will not become a leader. And this may not be due to the nature of the male duck, but to the underdevelopment of the genitals or other physical features. Ducklings feel this very well and immediately identify the weak. At the age of 3-4 months, the difference between babies becomes more noticeable. Ducks weigh about 3 kg (maximum), and Indo-duck drakes can gain up to 6 kg.

Indo-duck chicks do not have a characteristic growth, which appears somewhat later. In a young drake, only a small part of the head will grow, and in an adult, almost all.

Reasons for separation:

1. Rational distribution of feed. Males need to be fed more and more often, and females on a different, individual schedule.
2. Separating birds helps protect ducklings from diseases, as drakes have stronger immunity.
3. Females in the "female" company are more calm, do not enter into conflicts, do not want to fly.
4. You can adjust the number of drakes and females on the farm to get more eggs and ducklings.
5. You can get more meat from males if the farm is focused on meat production.
6. For selection, it is necessary to select drakes and ducks, dividing them into flocks. One drake - for 3-4 females.

Thus, it is not difficult to find visible differences between a drake and a duck. You just need to look closely at the offspring. The leader of the pack is always visible. In flight, while swimming or walking, he leads both adults and kids.

So, the drake is not a separate breed of bird, not a subspecies of the duck family, but just a word that is used to call a male duck. It differs from the female in a number of ways, which we will tell you about in this article. In addition, it makes sense to consider the basic requirements that must be observed when breeding ducks at home.

Main differences:

1. Coloring. Drakes have a colorful and bright "outfit", thanks to which they attract individuals of the opposite sex. Ducks, on the other hand, cannot boast of their beauty - their plumage is unsightly, gray, but it is excellent for camouflage somewhere in the reeds. For example, a male Indian ( Muscovy duck) has a rough red skin (growth) around the beak that extends over the eyes, and in the female Indochka, the color of this skin is usually pale pink and is located between the beak and the eyes.
2. Birds can be distinguished by their size. Drakes of any breed are always one and a half to two times larger than ducks and weigh, respectively, more. They also have a noticeably more powerful bend of the neck, head, wider body.
3. Tail feathers. In females, the feathers on the tail are straight, while in males they curl up (this is especially clearly seen in the Bashkir breed of ducks).
4. An obvious difference in the behavior of individuals: drakes already at an early age behave aggressively, they can attack other male ducks, bully each other. Females, on the contrary, are completely conflict-free and, at any hint of a fight, tend to hide in a corner and not take part in it. More males always let the ducks go forward, while they themselves keep a little behind.
5. The sounds made different sexes, are different. Only a duck can quack. Drakes make hissing and whistling sounds.

According to these features, you can learn how to distinguish an Indochka from a drake, or Moscow, or Bashkir - any other breeds.

How to determine the gender of a duckling?

Let's let's figure it out how to distinguish ducklings of different sexes from each other.

Poultry farmers with sufficient experience can do this already a day after the chick hatches according to the following signs:

1. Small drakes have larger heads than ducks.
2. The neck of females is more graceful, thinner and shorter than the neck of males.
3. The lower larynx of drakes is slightly expanded and shifted to the left; ducks do not have this.

Grown up ducklings can already be distinguished by the signs of adults - voice, mannerisms, appearance and so on.

Useful information about breeding ducks

Since we are talking about the duck family, let's delve into this topic and talk about breeding ducks how about the opportunity to start your own economic activity and earn good money from it without spending a lot of resources.

This is a pretty profitable business, because it has several undeniable advantages:

• Birds such as ducks are completely unpretentious in terms of living conditions and do not require special care.
• Zero waste production- You can sell not only meat and eggs, but also feathers, down, as well as young birds for breeding. The manure is used as a natural fertilizer for beds and plants.
• Ducks are very prolific, on average, a female can incubate about a hundred eggs in six months.
• Finally, these birds are relatively inexpensive, and with proper housekeeping, you can reap great benefits from this.

Do not forget, of course, that for a good start, an enterprise needs initial resources, such as a vast territory (always with at least a small body of water), room with a certain temperature (each breed and age has its own) and good ventilation, the availability of the necessary food for birds (except pasture, ducks need three meals a day in the form of finely chopped grass, tops, vegetables, grains, useful mineral supplements and water).

Also, if you want to establish your own production, you will have to run around the authorities and collect the necessary certificates and documents.

As best breeds for breeding, Bashkir, musky (Indo-datka), Saxon, Beijing and black white-breasted are distinguished. They possess good qualities both in terms of egg production and the taste of meat, as well as the ease of keeping and caring for them.

How to properly raise ducklings?

To begin with, the issue of hatching eggs. You can purchase a special incubator or go the natural way, leaving the care of the offspring to the mother hen.

In the first case, considerable equipment costs will go away, you will also have to constantly adjust the temperature and turn the eggs over after a certain period of time (usually several hours).

In the second case, there are much fewer problems - the ducks have a developed maternal instinct, the temperature under the hen is always necessary, plus the female will take care of the newborn ducklings herself, dragging them insects and other pasture.