Duck Dance

Location: Richard Stockton Marine Science and Environmental Field Station

Muscovy ducks, blotched black and white, like cows, with an accent of red on their beaks and around their eyes, like to dance. We observed two members of this unusual-looking species of farm duck as we walked back to the field station after our boat ride through the estuary.

The male duck struts down the path, bobbing its head unfailingly, toward a female. As he gets closer, he wags his black-feathered tail like a dog. The female does a similar tail-wag. The male continues to walk around the female, bobbing its head and wiggling its tail. At just the right time, the female spreads out its blotched black and white wings, revealing a long, majestic extension of white feathers on their under-side. She faced the male in this pose, as if to tell him, “I am too good for you”. The male, probably taken aback and embarrassed, redirects his attention to a log fence nearby and moves on, wiggling tail and all.

We notice a whole flock of these strange ducks not too far off, bobbing their heads and wagging their tails. What strange creatures.

Steve Everett, a scientist working with Stockton, tells us, “You can take them. All they do is roam.”