Besides delicious ducks, what's so special about them?

When we talked about ostriches yesterday, we mentioned that domestic ducks also have special Tintin. What's so special about domestic ducks? Let's review the introduction of the 2016 table species calendar.

Identify the mallard duck

Domestic ducks (Anas platyrhynchos domesticus) are domesticated from mallard ducks (also known as wild ducks, A. p.). Mallard ducks are widely distributed in Eurasia and North America, and are also scattered in other areas, but there are a lot of them wherever they are. Its super fecundity and wide distribution make it the most common edible duck (there are other wild domesticated domestic ducks, which are not introduced in this article).

Mallard duck, left female and right male. Picture: wiki commons

The mallard belongs to the genus Anas of the family Anatidae of Anseriformes. As the most common wild duck, it is often mistaken for mandarin duck (Aix galericulata) by passers-by because it is paired during the breeding season (which begins in winter).

Male mallard ducks can see the "curls" formed by the tail coverings. The white ring in the neck is also clear. Picture: Eagle Dance

Mallard male breeding feathers are very easy to identify, as long as you see the "green head" will not be mistaken, which is the origin of its name. The "green head" of the mallard duck is made up of dark green feathers with metallic luster, which is as green as a clump of grass in the sun, but when there is no light in the shadow, the metallic luster does not reflect and looks dark from a distance. In addition to the green head, the green-headed duck male has a white ring in the neck, which perfectly separates the green of the head from the purplish brown on the chest. The beak of the male bird is bright yellow (which is important, which will be mentioned later), and the tail coverts have "curls", which is the result of the special upwarping of feathers, which is also one of the recognition features.

The mallard male scratches his face. Picture: Eagle Dance

The appearance of the reproductive feathers of the mallard female is very different from that of the male, with a grayish black beak and a yellowish brown body, almost covered with dark textures, large and small, similar to the females of other ducks of the duck genus. So if there are only females but no males, it is not easy to identify species in the wild, and most of them have to be identified by the "wing mirror" on their wings.

Mallard female. Picture: Edward Johnes

The wing mirror is not an independent structure, but a region with a specific color formed by secondary feathers and large coverings on the wing. This color area is a blue-purple rectangle in the mallard, with black edges and white stripes in turn. All ducks have wing mirrors, both male and female, and the color composition of each kind of duck is different, but the male and female of the same kind of duck are the same, so the species can be judged by the wing mirror. As long as you can see the wing mirror, this method of judgment is very reliable.

The mallard female carries the baby, and the blue-purple wing mirror can be seen with drooping wings. Picture: imgmob.net

The wing mirror is particularly conspicuous when flying, when the wings are fully unfolded and the color blocks are exposed. It is not easy to see when you fold your wings while standing or swimming (but it is usually more or less exposed). The mallard's wing mirror, like the green head, has a metallic luster, and the color can change between blue, green and purple from different light angles, which is quite good-looking.

The mallard male is in a flying position. When the wings are fully expanded, the wing mirror is made up of white edges and black edges on both sides and a wide blue-purple rectangle in the middle. Picture: birdskorea.org

What ducks are good at is...

Although a mallard male has "green-headed" breeding feathers for more than half of the year, he will be replaced with almost exactly the same non-reproductive feathers as a female in a few months. At this time, it seems difficult to distinguish between male and female, but in fact, it can be cracked with only one move: look at its beak. No matter how much you molt, the color of the beak is always the same. as long as you see the bright yellow beak, no matter how many real females he is, you can find it at a glance.

The male mallard bird has non-reproductive feathers, and its whole body color is almost the same as that of the female except that its beak is exactly the same bright yellow as when it breeds. Picture: Eagle Dance

Mallard males are very good at rape, often raping not only females within their own species, but also other species of females, resulting in a considerable number of hybrid offspring. That's not enough. They don't even let go of homosexuality and corpses. The red-billed blue magpie once observed that a mallard female was forcibly mated by seven or eight mallard males in the water. Because the mating position was below, the female was never able to rise from the water again.

Mallard males trying to mate with a mallard female. Picture: Arkive.org

Domestic ducks are generally larger than wild mallard ducks because they are selected by humans in the process of domestication and tend to accumulate more fat in the process of feeding. Domestic ducks, like domestic geese (Anser cygnoides domestica), are the most common ones that are white after domestication. In addition to white domestic ducks, there are also domestic ducks of the same color as wild mallard ducks, and domestic ducks between white and wild types.

White domestic duck. Picture: nswong.50webs

Domestic ducks of various colors ranging from white to wild. Picture: animal-kid

In addition to the colorful offspring produced by mating between domestic ducks of different color types, sometimes wild mallard ducks also enter the active area of domestic ducks to find food and mate to leave offspring.

The hybrid offspring of male mallard duck and female white domestic duck. Picture: nwv-schwaben.de

To humans, ducks mean fat.

Most of the ducks of the genus river duck swim on the surface of the water and cannot dive. When foraging in the water, they can only put the front part of the body into the water at most, and their buttocks must be exposed (the same is true of swans). They look fat.

The mallard duck forages underwater, left male and right female. Picture: cod.edu

White ducks look for food under water. Picture: youtube.com

Such a fat duck is perfect for roasting. When it comes to roast duck, the first thing that comes to mind is Beijing roast duck. This dish is one of the must-eat dishes to go to Beijing. Fat under the skin thick, with skin to eat crisp oil, with fresh and chewy lean meat inside will not be very greasy, the taste is just good. Coupled with shredded green onions, shredded cucumber, sweet noodle sauce, rolled up with pancakes, the taste is fragrant and delicious, sweet but not greasy. The duck skeleton after removing the duck meat can also be used to make soup, the soup is fresh, the meat taste is not enough oil, my favorite soup when I was a child is duck skeleton stewed cabbage soup.

Sliced Beijing Roast Duck. Picture: jlxbjky

In addition to roast duck, the cooking methods of duck include beer duck, salted duck, stewed duck, ginger mother duck and so on. The output of ducks is not only duck meat, but also duck feet (mustard, braised, spicy, etc.), duck blood (duck blood vermicelli soup, Mao Xuewang, hot pot, etc.), duck eggs (Salted Duck Egg with rice porridge is a favorite for breakfast! (wait a minute. This big night, we will not unfold.

soup with duck flood and vermicelli. Picture: clvyou

Finally, we recommend a series of animation "Duck Life", which describes the daily life of wild birds with the white domestic duck as the protagonist. Very scientific and lively and interesting.

The king of domestic ducks mixed with migrating wild ducks. Picture: screenshot of "Duck Life" animation

Mr. Duck was bullied by the Raptor. Picture: screenshot of "Duck Life" animation

Jiayujun is an expressive emperor. Photo: screenshot of "Duck Life"

This article is for species Calendar 2016, from the author of species Calendar @ Eagle Dance.

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