Domestic Duck Breeds Trivia Quiz

Answer: Magpie

The magpie was bred in Britain after World War I, with the first description of it dating from 1921. The breed standard was agreed and first published in 1926. The black and white colouration was the only one officially recognised in the UK until 1997, when the blue and white and dun and white variations were included. A chocolate and white colour is also accepted. US standards are different.

The breed is used primarily as a show bird, but does provide whiter meat than most ducks due to the white breast feathers.

Answer: Pekin

Often called the American Pekin, these are massive, white ducks. The breed was developed from Chinese stock brought to the USA in the nineteenth century. They are also called Long Island ducks as they were commonly bred in that area.

The breed is fast growing and is large in size, with most duck sold for the table in America being Pekin. The ducks lay 150 or more eggs per year and large flocks are raised by farmers who specialise in them.

Indian runner and Saxony are real duck breeds, but the Bombay duck is a fish.

Answer: Bali

The Bali duck is also called the crested runner and has its origins in the Indonesian island of Bali. It is a variant of the Indian runner and has the same upright stance. It is bred mainly for show or as a pet..

The crest is a mutation and if birds carrying the same gene breed, the eggs are mostly infertile. If ducklings hatch, they are deformed and rarely survive. Cross breeding to non crested ducks increases survival rates, but reduces the number of crested ducks.

Answer: New York

There are various stories about the origins of the breed, but nobody seems entirely sure which, if any, are true, although they date from the late nineteenth century. The English black duck is cited as one ancestor, and the Cayuga certainly looks black from a distance. Closer examination reveals the beautiful iridescent green feathers, which the photo has captured.

The Cayuga was bred for meat initially, but also produces numerous eggs. More recently it has been kept for show or ornamental purposes.

Answer: Muscovy

Muscovy ducks can be identified by the bare skin on their faces which looks rather like a collection of warts. Although the name of Muscovy is an old name for Moscow, these ducks have nothing to do with Europe and were numerous in South America, including Paraguay and Peru, before the European invaders arrived. They were used for food, with their feathers used for cloaks.

The Spaniards introduced the breed to the Old World, and the birds now come in a range of colours. Wild ducks are primarily black, but domesticated colours include blue, chocolate, lavender and piebald, which is white mixed with any other colour.

Answer: Silver bantam

Developed in the 1930s, in England, the full sized duck is named for its colouring and the man who bred them in England, Reginald Appleyard. It resembles the mallard, used to create it, in shape and size but the paler colours mean the meat is whiter than darker feathered ducks.

The smaller version is even more recent, bred in Gloucestershire in the 1980s. Because the bantam versions doesn't share its genotype with the silver Appleyard, the duck was given the name silver bantam in 1997 when it was officially recognised in the UK. It is still found under the names miniature silver Appleyard and silver Appleyard bantam as well as the official name.

Answer: England

The breeding of Aylesbury ducks was originally a 'cottage industry', with the ducks being kept in the homes of their owners as they grew. Mrs Beeton mentions them in her famous book about home management. They were originally bred from wild mallards and were called white English until 1815 when Aylesbury took over.

The Aylesbury was the most common duck sold in London's meat markets for many years, but the Pekin took its place. Apparently Aylesbury ducks have disappeared from their namesake town in the twenty-first century, at least as a business.

Answer: Rouen

Rouen ducks are one of the older breeds of domestic duck and are classed as general purpose. The breed made its way to the UK in the early nineteenth century and to the USA around fifty years later. Selective breeding means that modern day Rouen ducks are much larger than their ancestors.

While the drakes look very like the wild mallard, females tend to be a darker brown than their wild counterparts and have a distinctive white eye stripe. Rouens provide high quality meat, although they take longer than other breeds to mature. Consequently they are not used for commercial farming as much as the Pekin.

Answer: Khaki Campbell

The breed was developed in Uley in the English county of Gloucestershire in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The breeder used Indian runner ducks, fawn ducks and, later on, Rouen ducks to come up with a breed originally known as the Campbell.

Buff was a popular colour at the time, but the breeder felt the shade was closer to that of the British army so called the ducks Khaki Campbell. The breed is adaptable and does well in both cold and hot weather areas. It is a particularly prolific layer of eggs.

Answer: Netherlands

These ducks are among the oldest of the domestic breeds, with them being described as far back as the seventeenth century. Their origins are rather unclear, but they were first found in the Netherlands and may owe their heritage to Indian runners bred with mallards. The beak may have been developed to keep the domestic ducks safer from hunters of wild ducks.

Another breed which lays a lot of eggs each year, the hookbill is also known for its foraging abilities. There are three main colour variations known as dusky, white and the white-bibbed dusky.