Ducks Are Delightful! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Diver

The word "duck" is derived from the Old English "dūce", which means "diver". It is easy to understand the origin of the word after watching ducks for a short time. While some, called diving ducks, dive completely underwater looking for food, others, called dabbling ducks, just have their heads underwater and their tails upended.

They find food on or near the surface of the water.

Answer: Swans

Members of the Anatidae family are found on every continent of the world. They commonly can swim or float, and many can dive. Ducks, geese, and swans belong to this family that contains 146 species. While some have been domesticated, others are hunted. Humans eat the meat and use their feathers for coats, blankets, and even pillows.

Answer: True

The words beak and bill are used interchangeably and are considered to be the same. Even though the size and shape may differ greatly, bills/beaks have an upper jaw and a lower jaw. The outer surface of a bill/beak is made of keratin - the same substance from which our fingernails are made. Ducks have a nail at the end of their bill/beak which they use to dig for food or grasp things. Diving ducks even use it to pry open shells!

Answer: Hen

Drakes and hens normally mate for at least one breeding season - some may stay together longer - but, interestingly, they do not happen to be the best parents! Ducklings are ready to move and can find their own food shortly after hatching, so it is not necessary for the parents to take care of them.

In fact, some parents may leave the nest before all the eggs hatch, with the hatched ducklings following their mother. In this case, other ducks may claim the abandoned eggs and continue to sit on them until they hatch.

Answer: Down

When ducks hatch they are covered in down. As they grow they have down beneath their body's protective feathers, which helps to keep them warm. As ducks preen, or groom their feathers, they spread a waxy substance produced in their preen gland, which waterproofs their feathers and gives them buoyancy to float in the water. The other choices are names for parts of a feather.

Answer: Molting

Ducks lose old feathers and grow new ones in a process called molting at least once a year. Like other water fowl, they typically lose all their feathers at the same time, and it takes 20-40 days to grow them back. This happens before migration because ducks are unable to fly while molting.

Answer: True

Not all ducks eat fish - but some do! Most prefer grasses, insects, worms, or the occasional frog - but the larger merganser duck, which lives in rivers or seas, has a serrated edge along its bill/beak that helps it grip its prey and is perfect for eating fish.

Answer: Beeeeze

That's right! While some species of female ducks may quack, the sound the males make is described as being raspier and is called a beeeeze. Depending on the species, ducks also coo, whistle, yodel, grunt, or scaup. And - contrary to past stories - a duck's quack may create an echo!

Answer: Webbed

Most ducks have webbed feet, which are used for swimming through the water. The cool thing about having webbed feet is that there are no blood vessels or nerves in them. That means that ducks do not feel the temperature in the water on cold days and are still perfectly content paddling around in the water.

Answer: Sitting duck

Even though they have great eyesight, ducks are not especially quick in reacting when they are confronted with a dangerous situation. While in the water, they are easy prey - or sitting ducks - for alligators, snapping turtles, larger birds of prey, and the like. This has lead to the expression "sitting duck", which means they have no protection so they are easily captured.