Muscovy Ducks Might Well Intrigue You

Did you know that the Muscovy Duck ‘hisses' and does not ‘quack'? Strange, that. One naturally assumes that all ducks quack.

My uncle and aunt kept a flock of Muscovies on their small farm in Southern Africa to provide themselves with ‘table birds' every so often. They were kept in a pen but the door was often left open and so they ‘grazed' in the yard around the house. They gave the impression of being contented birds, breeding easily - hatching out a brood of eight or more ducklings every four months or so. They genuinely seemed to have no complaints with their lifestyle - it suited them very well.

As an aside, this was not so of a flock of ostriches penned up for breeding purposes, which I once saw. A more miserable, pathetic bunch of birds is hardly imaginable, every bone in their bodies indicating defeat by their enclosure as they stood limply by the wooden fences gazing longingly at the open land outside of their pen. Not a blade of grass existed inside, just bare, hard ground and stones. Nothing to give them stimulus to enjoy their surroundings.

Back to the muscovies, from a human point of view, the Muscovy droppings in the yard seemed endless, covering the ground and squelching under your feet as you walked across it. Treading carefully was not an option, and therein lies my reason for avoiding these ducks, even today.

Much research has gone into the origin of the name Muscovy. By the nature of their name, Russia was the most likely place of origin (though they are, in fact, native to Mexico). The most widely accepted outcome of the research seems to be that the history of their name derives from their distinctive musky odour. Their family tree has also been shuffled around until the consensus has been reached that they belong to the ‘Shelduck' - genus Tadorna - a group of larger, often semi-terrestrial waterfowl.

Muscovies naturally eat small shore animals like winkles and crab as well as grass. They are also well known for being particularly partial to cockroaches, mosquitoes and flies. (It has been recorded that they eat thirty times more houseflies than conventional flytraps are able to deal with.)

Muscovies have raised controversy among those who have an interest in kosher food laws because they do not have a standard avian ‘crop', though their other unique attributes are generally accepted; i.e. they have an extra toe and a gizzard and their eggs are not round or greenish. They also do not eat carrion, another pointer to being an acceptable kosher food source.

They are found as domesticated duck around the world. In North America, a small wild population of muscovies reaches into the US in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. There are also ‘domesticated, turned wild' breeding populations of these ducks in nearly every state of the USA as well as in the Canadian provinces.

Why do I mention all this?

Well, it's because if you enjoy the outdoors and want to get as much out of it as possible, keep a lookout for them. As their natural habitat is near water, any boating experience, especially along a shoreline, may give you the opportunity to see them. They are big ducks, weighing around 6 kg on average, are mainly black and white and the males have a pronounced wattle at the top of their bill. This wattle puts them apart from other ducks. Duck shooting may be a sport which is of particular interest to you. If this is so, try the ‘quick compare list of 35 brand name kayaks' to assist you with your choice of hunting boat.

There are of course a host of other species of bird life to look out for around the water's edge. Take advantage of a free list of North American ducks, geese and swans compiled from Wikipedia and www.jncc.gov.uk - published in 2007 of water birds around the world. A few species are endangered which would make it all the more special if you should manage to spot one. The list contains both the common and the Latin names for the birds and should you not have a bird book, Google images or a book from a public library is always an option for seeing what the birds look like. Take a sketch pad along with you to sketch them. It may stir the artist within and provide new insights into the wonders of nature. The list can be found at:

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