In this video, a tufted duck mother feeds with her ducklings.
The ducklings dive sometimes.
Jurgen Rotteveel from the Netherlands made the video.
In this video, a tufted duck mother feeds with her ducklings.
The ducklings dive sometimes.
Jurgen Rotteveel from the Netherlands made the video.
We have a family of Mallards living under a bridge in a stream just a block away from us. It’s always nice to check them out and see how the little ones are growing up.
Leslie
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Indeed, it is! Mallards can’t dive, contrary to tufted ducks.
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These ones do. I’m pretty sure they are Mallards. (green head) We’ve seen them ducking for food.
Leslie
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Male adult mallards have green heads. They can dabble, with part of their bodies under water, but not dive, staying completely under water for, eg, fifteen seconds or more.
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Okay, it was the males with the green heads. They did dabble for stuff, but come to think of it they didn’t dive under for any length of time.
Leslie
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Mallards and other dabbling ducks eat plants which don’t move, so they don’t need to dive. While tufted ducks eat shellfish, insects, etc. for which they need to dive to catch them.
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I did not know that. Thank you.
Leslie
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My pleasure 😉
Mallards and relatives are the dabbling ducks:
http://birding.about.com/od/birdingglossary/g/dabblingduck.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatinae
while tufted ducks and relatives are the diving ducks:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aythyinae
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