Stick duck
| stick duck | ||||||||||||||
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| stick duck ♂ (Anas platyrhynchos) | ||||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||||
| Anas platyrhynchos | ||||||||||||||
| (Linnaeus, 1758) | ||||||||||||||
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the stick duck (Anas platyrhynchos) is bird a kind from that Family of the duck birds (Anatidae). It is our most well-known wildly living duck and also the master form of the house duck. It is called “stick " duck, since it breeds on pastures, which became set on the stick - thus back-cut -.
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appearance
the stick duck weighs 700 to 1.500Gram. Their length amounts to maximally 58 centimeters and its wingspan up to 95 centimeters and it can maximally 110 kilometers per hour fast fly.
The splendour dress of the male, Erpel mentioned, is grey, with brown chest, brownish back and black upperand Unterschwanzdecken. The head is metallically green green yellow with white Halsring under it, the bill. At the Hinterrand of the wings is a metallically blue, white gesäumtes volume, the “mirror”. The tail points are rolled up (Erpellocken). The male carries in the period between Julyand August its simple dress, and sees similar thereby to the female for confounding. Only the bill colouring supplies the reference to the sex: the further clearly yellow bill of the male and in addition in contrast that dark grey to - brown bill of the female.
ThatFemale is not so magnificently colored and has a brown-grey speckled camouflage colouring. The only remarkable is the wing mirror, which corresponds to that of the male.
The ducks mausern twice in the year, i.e. them lose their feathers/springs and replace them by new.
cover feathers/springs, which protect it against wetness and cold weather, have female stick duck (Anas platyrhynchos). They always grease their feather/spring dress, so that no water penetrates through the plumage. A gland at the tail root(the Bürzeldrüse) the fat supplies. The duck takes up the fat with the bill and paints it thereby in the plumage.
On the water the duck is carried by an air cushion. Air holds itself between the Daunengefieder, andthe cover feathers/springs lock the Daunen. Together with the fat pad under the skin the enclosed air layer prevents that the duck cools down. Air and fat are bad heat leaders, thus hardly body warmth is lost.
spreading
the stick duck is thosemost frequent and furthest common kind of duck. It seems to North America in the whole Northern Hemisphere, from Europe over Asia until. In New Zealand it is imported and verbastardiert with the native brow duck, which displaces it.
In many cities comeStick ducks forwards, which are verbastadiert with house ducks and are characterised by a deviating colouring. These city ducks exhibit some characteristics.
habitat and way of life
the stick duck are very flexible and occur nearly everywhere, whereit waters gives. Stick ducks swim on lakes, in ponds, inland waters, mountain lakes and are also in small forest and meadow ditches. Stick ducks are also since the first half 20. Century in German cities far spreads. Thatfirst breeding's pair in Hamburg was determined 1913.
Their bath behavior is remarkable. It is characterized by three bath movements: Head-dive in, then violent wing striking followed after the water surface, of a Vornüberkippen in the water.
The natural enemies of the stick duck are foxes and grab birds.
In the wilderness ducks can become old 10 to 15 years. Under human care they in addition, 40 years become old.
Stick ducks show a strong variability concerning their moving behavior. The representative resident in east and Northern Europe mostly migratory birds are andmove starting from October to central, west or southwest Europe. In west and south Europe resident representatives usually show against it no course behavior, but are condition birds. In Central Europe resident representatives can remain at the place, undertake only shorter migrations or also furtherSouthwest migrations show.
nutrition
the food of the stick duck consists predominantly of vegetable materials. She loves Sämereien, fruits, green water, bank and land plants. In addition, to the food spectrum insects , soft animals , larvae , small cancers belong, Kaulquappen, Laich, small fish, frogs, worms and even mice. In the autumn it eats and other Nüsse from acorns. In fodder places the stick ducks eat also occasionally and kitchen wastes from bread.
With the fodder search and with danger those dipDucks under. If they do that with the fodder search, one calls it “Gründeln”. The tail stands out thereby perpendicularly upward from the water. With their bill they bite plant parts off and press the water, which they also took up,by the horn borders of the bill after outside. These parts of the bill work like a kitchen filter. The food (small water animals) remains hanging on it.
reproduction
the mating time is the spring. The Balz (mating play) runs thereby after a complicatedRitual off. Stick ducks build their nest from plants at an embankment. The females breed twice in the year. 7 to 16 eggs 25 to 28 days is long expenditure-bred. Three days before slipping the Küken begins to beep. With that Eizahn (pointed tooth at the bill end) bores it a hole into the eggshell of the egg and pedals themselves from the bowl, afterwards it remains lying exhausted. Ducks are Nestflüchter, i.e., they are already very far developed, abandoned when slippingafter short time the nest and can swim from the outset. In the first hours of their life they run after that, which they see first. That is usually the nut/mother. This form of the interaction from learning and innate behavior is calledCoinage and is with kinds with breeding welfare service a crucial component of the reproduction cycle. Coinage differs particularly by two characteristics from other kinds of learning: First of all it is irreversibly and secondly is learning on a sensitive phase (also criticalPeriod) limits. After eight weeks the young ducks can fly. The duck watches out for the Küken 50 to 60 days.
city duck
the city duck is in ranges of larger cities in parks and at waters the one which can be found most frequentlyForm of the stick duck.
spreading
city ducks settle waters in range from cities, particularly ponds and Weiher in city parks, in addition, rivers, those the cities flow through and other natural waters within range from cities. Even larger wells are settled.
appearance
city ducks differ mainly by “falsecolored” individuals from the usual stick ducks. Darken, often nearly purely black, brown or dark-green individuals are frequent. Often a white “rubber strip” arises at the chest. Individuals are rarerwith white or portions brighter compared with stick ducks. Pretty often only the cover feathers/springs of the wings are more or less dark and the white Halsring widened or to the rubber strip increased with males. In Hamburg 13 per cent is in the city centerthe stick ducks falsecolored, at the outskirts of a town however only 0.7 per cent.
behavior
city ducks often exhibit fewer well minted protection behavior regarding their boys, who often already depart after few days far from the nut/mother. Likewisea changed mating behavior is typical, with several Erpel individual ducks pursues and then tries together with this to kopulieren, whereby pretty often several Erpel fall themselves on an individual duck swimming in the water and these thereby underWater press to these drowns. Thus the sex relationship is usually shifted to favour of the males. Sometimes there are twice as many males such as females, in extreme cases ten times so many. Outside of the cities the Erpel becomes additionally strong by thoseHunt limits. City ducks compete with the brood often with likewise frequently up Nile geese breeding in cities, which they must yield however regularly at the breeding time.
history
city ducks are a relatively new phenomenon. The first pair of ducks in Hamburg became 1913 determined. City ducks probably decrease/go back to hybridizing of stick ducks with different house ducks. Until today one finds pretty often particulars, obvious out laws or flown away house ducks in urban parking oaks or in well-known feeding places to cities to flowing through rivers. Even exotic ducksand one finds kinds of goose, either suspended animals or shank refugees, there.
In the comparison with old photos one finds today more rarely very bright individuals. Altogether the number of the “falsecolored” city ducks seems to go rather back. This probably shows the risingSelection pressure under city ducks on.
literature
- Erich Rutschke: The Wildenten of Europe. German agriculture publishing house. ISBN 3331003204
- Uwe Gille: A contribution for the quantitative anatomy of the birds with special consideration of the Anatidae. Habilitationsschrift University of Leipzig, 1997.
See also
Web on the left of
| Commons: Stick duck - pictures, videos and/or audio files |
| Wiktionary: Stick duck - word origin, synonyms and translations |
