Why don't ducks sleep at night? How do ducks live and what do they eat in the wild?
As a city dweller, I was always interested in the question of where and how domestic and wild ducks sleep, as well as for how long and how often, since I did not have the opportunity to see this.
Wild ducks sleep very close to the water: on the shore of the pond near which they live, in dense thickets of coastal vegetation, or in the water in general. They gather in a small flock and the birds that are on its edges guard everyone else: they sleep with only one eye closed. It is believed that at this time only one hemisphere of their brain is switched off, while the other is working. Thus, ducks can immediately react to danger and warn their relatives about approaching predators or humans. The birds in the center close both eyes and sleep soundly. After some time they change places.
Expert opinion
Poultry expert
Ask a question to an expertDomestic ducks, like wild ones, can sleep in 2 positions: sitting and standing. When they choose the second option, that is, standing, they either bend one leg under themselves, hide it under their belly, or continue to stand on two. Then they turn the head back and tuck the beak into the shoulder plumage, which is located near the wing. They also sleep with one eye half-open, like wild animals, or cover both eyes.
For ducks, it doesn't matter when they sleep: they can do it both at night and during the day. They often fall asleep after the next meal, that is, their daily routine is as follows: they ate, dived in the water, cleaned their feathers and they can sleep. Birds kept in the household spend the night right in the yard or in the poultry house, but do not fly up to roost like chickens, but are located on the ground or on the floor.
Ducks' sleep can be shallow and deep; it alternates during the night and day. Moreover, they can wake up for a while, about 20-40 minutes, to eat, bathe and put their feathers in order. The rest of the time, ducks can sleep, and one sleep period lasts approximately 1-2 hours, but no more. In total, the total duration of sleep for ducks is 8 hours, which is quite enough for their body to rest and fully restore strength for a new day.
Research suggests that the most common birds throughout Russia are ducks. These waterfowl can be found in slightly salted as well as fresh water bodies. They are very small in size and are relatively unpretentious. Some species, such as the mallard and greylag goose, have been domesticated for eggs, meat and down. Species that live in the wild are considered hunted. Therefore, it will be useful for many novice hunters to know how ducks sleep. You can read about this later in this article. First, you should familiarize yourself in more detail with the general characteristics of these birds.
Characteristic
Ducks are part of a large, widespread family of waterfowl, including about 150 species. All these species have a streamlined, wide body, leathery membranes on the limbs, and a flattened beak. The plumage of ducks is completely waterproof, which is explained by the fatty lubricant secreted by the coccygeal gland.
However, these birds regularly wash their feathers thoroughly. For this purpose, they run through the water, flopping their wings very loudly. Ducks that have not bathed in water for several days may drown the first time they hit its surface, or they will swim with great difficulty, being partially submerged in the pond. In addition, dirty plumage significantly interferes with flight. Clean birds that have swam in the water come ashore, shaking themselves well, thanks to which the structure of the feathers, which was damaged by the influence of water, is restored. Then the birds use their beak to catch fat from their coccygeal gland, after which they apply it to their feathers.
What do ducks eat?
Most varieties of ducks eat plant food and sometimes animal food. The diet contains grass, as well as roots that birds dig out of the ground.
Sea duck species dive well, thanks to which they obtain food at the bottom of the reservoir. These types of birds eat mollusks and crustaceans.
Diving species dive into a body of water in such a way that only the tail can be observed on the surface. The diet of such birds includes algae, zooplankton, mollusks, worms and insects.
As for mergansers, they behave more efficiently under water, so they are able to easily catch sea fish for food.
Most birds eat food on the surface of the water, capturing the water in their beak, where it is filtered, and various algae, small invertebrates, plant particles and plankton remain.
Ducks sleep
Most birds sleep with one eye open, thanks to which they can protect themselves from possible attacks by predators. If we talk about how ducks sleep in the wild, then this happens in a group. In most cases, they hide in the reeds or simply accumulate in a small group on the shore.
Some animals sleep in very special ways. The average person needs at least 8 hours of sleep a night to recharge for the day. Excessive sleep duration, just like lack of sleep, sooner or later leads to health problems. Animals also need sleep to stay healthy and strong. And each species has its own preferences, frequency and duration of sleep. But out of thousands of animal species, there are some that sleep in a very special way.
1. Giraffe.
The giraffe requires the shortest amount of sleep among mammals. In order to get enough sleep, he needs only 10 minutes to 2 hours of sleep per day. On average, giraffes sleep about two hours a day.
2. Brown bat.
This bat lives up to 33 years and usually sleeps 19 hours a day.
3. Fat-tailed dwarf lemur.
This lemur is the first tropical primate to hibernate in the summer, defying modern biological laws. The temperature at which the dwarf lemur hibernates is about 30 degrees Celsius. Moreover, during hibernation, the lemur does not control its body temperature, as a result of which it changes in accordance with the ambient temperature. The duration of its hibernation is 7 months a year.
4. Guinea baboon.
He sleeps on his heels at the top of a tree. This allows him to be on guard in case enemies are nearby.
5. Sonya.
This is why this mouse is called the dormouse, because it also hibernates for 6 months a year, or even longer if the ambient temperature remains cool enough. Sometimes dormice wake up for short periods of time to snack on the food that they have previously stored somewhere nearby.
Dormice have a subfamily - forest dormouse. Their peculiarity is that they can sleep on a tree branch for a long time, ready to wake up at the same moment as soon as the branch moves even slightly from a breath of wind.
6. Reptiles.
Reptiles fall into a special form of hibernation, a kind of slumber. Its difference from hibernation lies in the peculiarities of metabolism. Reptiles periodically wake up to drink water.
7. Frogs.
They are one of the most prominent hibernating animals. The northern leopard frog, for example, hibernates at the bottom of a deep lake, far from its icy surface. The frog's body contains a kind of natural antifreeze, so some species can survive in a frozen state, without heartbeat or breathing, for weeks at a time.
8. Swanson's thrush.
This bird dozes hundreds of times a day during its migrations. Moreover, each such dream lasts several seconds.
9. Common nightjar.
The common nightjar is known for being the only bird capable of falling into torpor for long periods of time (weeks to months). This is how he spends his winter time. This long period of torpor is very similar to hibernation, which has not yet been observed among birds.
10. Albatross.
These birds are known for sleeping in flight. Even while flying at their cruising speed of 25 km/h. In addition, albatrosses are also known for their largest wingspan among living birds, reaching 3.7 meters.
11. Ducks.
Ducks and many other birds sleep with one eye open, which allows them to protect themselves from sudden attacks by predators.
At the same time, wild ducks sleep differently when gathered in a group. So that the birds inside can sleep more deeply, while sentries are on duty at the edges.
Where to look for a duck when hunting? This question arises for every hunter before the start of the summer-autumn duck hunting season, and it becomes especially acute when for some reason a duck suddenly disappears somewhere in the second half of September.
You go to those places where you shot not a single duck in August, but there are no more ducks there. Conversations begin among hunters that the local duck has already flown south, but the migratory duck has not yet arrived.
In fact, there is a duck and it has not flown anywhere yet, but has simply become better at hiding from hunters, which is why an imaginary idea is created that there are no ducks in the hunting grounds.
Now I will tell you about the hottest places in which you should look for ducks during the hunting season.
With the start of the season, the situation becomes clearer to everyone, because at this time most hunters go to bodies of water that are known to almost everyone.
There are a lot of ducks in such places and everyone can shoot. All the action begins early in the morning, when the most sober hunters go out to the hunting grounds.
In the morning hours, the duck returns from feeding and flies to where it spends the whole day. It is in such places that shooting begins in full swing.
The bird actively darts in different directions to hide from the hunters, but the shots from the guns do not stop.
After some time, a short-term silence still sets in, which is interrupted by new shots on the neighboring reaches, where the duck has flown to escape, but is met there by other hunters.
At the beginning of autumn, it is already difficult to repeat the kind of duck hunting that was at the beginning of the season, since the birds have become very cautious. Now the question of where to look for duck becomes most pressing.
Certain water bodies are suitable for the duck, which help it hide from enemies and find food. Such places are dense thickets with abundant presence of algae and duckweed.
Thus, it would be preferable to reach such stretches where it is very difficult to pass, but they have a lot of reeds or reeds that perfectly cover everything around.
As a rule, such places are called swamps. Many ducks can be seen in the irrigation canals along the fields.
Ducks especially love such places, but in the fall it can be difficult to get within shooting distance of them and you have to shoot at long distances. Sometimes you can raise up to hundreds of ducks from such secluded places.
Small rivers with abundant vegetation somewhere in impassable places are a frequent place for duck flocks to spend the day.
Quite often, ducks are intercepted in flight areas. The duck tries to fly over the water near reeds or some thickets so that it is less visible.
When the mass migration of ducks begins, the birds begin to go out into open and large water, where huge flocks begin to swim, which become quite difficult to reach.
In such a situation, you should track the flight routes of the ducks and shoot them exactly there, or place several dozen stuffed ducks nearby to lure them to the hiding place.
Thus, the most popular places to look for ducks are small reservoirs with a large amount of aquatic vegetation, duckweed and reeds, located somewhere in dense thickets. This is where you can find the most ducks during the daytime.
Text: Ekaterina Khripko
The main character of Salinger’s novel “The Catcher in the Rye” wondered where the ducks went from the ponds of New York. Half a century has passed, and residents of large cities still cannot answer this question right away. The Village turned to an ornithologist and head of the bird department of the Moscow Zoo to find out where ducks winter in the capital, how they adapt to the urban environment and what not to feed them.
“The sewage water that is discharged into the Moscow River prevents ice from setting and makes these places suitable for ducks.”
Ksenia Avilova
Candidate of Biological Sciences, Leading Researcher at the Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University
Usually, with the onset of cold weather, waterfowl fly to warmer climes. But since there are many ice-free bodies of water in Moscow and the region, birds refuse long-distance flights.
As soon as it gets cold, the birds fly until they see open water. Industrial and sewage waters that are discharged into the Moscow River and Yauza prevent ice from setting and make these places suitable for ducks. Yes, the water is indeed not very clean, but no mass death of birds has been observed anywhere.
Frosts affect ducks only during periods of lack of food - this was shown by comparing the temperature graph and changes in the number of birds. Therefore, it is very good that city residents have the habit of feeding animals. If not for this tradition, it is unlikely that so many ducks would spend the winter in Moscow.
The optimal food for ducks is grain, but who in the city will feed the birds wheat or mixed feed? As for the rumors that bread is harmful to them, then we are apparently talking about black bread, which really causes fermentation. White bread in the quantity in which birds usually eat it is safe for them.
“The wings are clipped only for valuable birds, which under no circumstances should fly away.”
Nikolay Skuratov
Head of the Bird Department of the Moscow Zoo
Wild ducks live in Moscow, that is, no one clips their wings - they are clipped only for valuable birds, which under no circumstances should fly away.
Ducks are not afraid of frost, but only if they are well-fed. With enough food, their instinct to migrate is dulled, and they fly over without relying on their internal compass. You can feed them with grain: wheat, millet, oatmeal, and during the thaw you can bring finely chopped vegetables: cabbage, carrots. They will eat all this with pleasure and will be able to survive the winter normally.
Ducks can also eat bread, even black bread, although white is still better for them. The fact that such food is harmful for birds is a folk legend, which apparently came from recommendations for the diet of birds in poultry farms. There the animals sit in cages, and feeding them bread is simply not economically profitable. But for ducks in the wild it is not harmful, even useful. All the same, they find some food themselves - for example, they get it from the bottom of a plant.
