Muscovy Ducks: An Unusual Bird to Go with an Unusual Face

With a body like a duck, habits like a goose including nesting, attacking predators, and hissing, claws like a chicken and the ability to roost, and a breast like a turkey, what do you get? That would be the odd and unforgettable Muscovy Duck. This large perching duck is easily recognizable with a bare, often bumpy looking, red face called carnucles. These carnucles cover and area above the beak and around the eye and in some birds is very ugly and very pronounced. Of course, once you get past their naturally ugly looks there is much more to this bird then meets the eye.

A touch of history.
The Muscovy duck is native to South America, Central America, and Mexico with it's natural habitat extending into Texas. Long before explorers discovered the new lands the natives of these areas domesticated these ducks using them to control pest populations and for food. This probably dates back as far as Pre-Inca Peru and covers a wide number of different cultures. Once the explorers arrived these ducks were taken back to Europe some time in the early 1500's. By 1550 they were being imported and also taken to other colonies around the world.

Domestication and Breed History.
The Muscovy line is one that is mostly Muscovy and the only domestic duck that isn't derived of Mallard stock. They haven't had a lot of luck with hybridizing this bird with other ducks. The process often produces infertile ducks referred to as "Mule Ducks". While these ducks are very tasty table birds, they don't offer a lot of success to the breed because they are unable to produce offspring. There are two ducks that have genetically enhanced various Muscovy populations. The first is known to happen hundreds of years ago. The South American farmers bred the Muscovy duck with the South American Comb Duck. For the most part this produces infertile females and males with significantly mutated sperm in effect creating "Mule Ducks". However, about 1 in 30 male ducks produced was able to reproduce with a Muscovy female. Thus the South American Comb Duck added a bit of genes to some South American Muscovy populations. In Asia a similar thing happened though it is not known if it was on purpose or a mere accident. The Muscovy population bred with the White Winged Wood Duck (which is now on the verge of extinction). This produced infertile females while most of the males were fertile and bred back into the general Muscovy population. These hybrids happened only in the domestic population as hybridization of the Muscovy ducks doesn't happen very often in the wild.

On Looks and Behavior.
While the Muscovy Duck is easily recognized by its ugly red face, this isn't all there is to this bird. It is a large duck with drakes (males) weighing in around 10-15 pounds and the hens (females) at about 5-10 pounds. They are also known for their long strong claws that are at the end of their webbed toes. The wild coloration is black and white, however domestication has brought about a wide range of white, black, chocolate, blue, and lavender varieties and mixes. Many Muscovy populations are found in the United States, Europe, and even some parts of Asia in local ponds because they have escaped farms and gone back to feral living. These ducks are fairly quite with the males often hissing and the females making muted shortened "quacks". The only exception to this is that the mother duck will chirp as her eggs are hatching. This teaches the ducklings what her warning sounds are. The ducklings are often fairly independent because they are taught this warning. The Muscovy is known for unusual behavior including wagging its tail, greeting people, responding by raising its crest when talked to, chasing cats and dogs as well as baiting them, intelligent behavior, and often trying to escape. They also spend a good portion of their time on land and aren't known for spending a lot of time swimming. This is due to an under developed oil gland. In most ducks the oil gland keeps the feathers healthy even with lots of prolonged exposure to water. With the Muscovy duck this isn't so and their feathers can fray from too much water. While they don't spend all their time in the water, they do love to bathe and are often seen splashing and playing in the water.

What they eat.
The Muscovy is the ultimate eater. They are known for eating anything that they can find including bugs of all sorts, roots, stems, leaves, algae, seeds, small fishes, lizards, snakes, and vermin including mice, voles, and young rats. In many places they have been used to control pest populations such as mosquitoes, spiders, and roaches. They love mosquito larva and will eat it from the water, but also enjoy eating flying ones, poisonous spiders, flies, and maggots. Because they are fierce eaters with a wide variety of food choices they should be kept away from rabbit and guinea pig cages, especially if their are young there. They have no problems attacking the young for food.

Parenting.
Like many ducks the Muscovy doesn't create a breeding pair. Instead they will breed with anyone and often times there is forced breeding among wild populations. A female Muscovy will lay 8-21 eggs at a time. She will incubate those eggs for 35 days (most ducks incubate in 28 days). Once her ducklings have hatched she will take care of them for 10-12 weeks. While Muscovy ducks are ugly they have particularly adorable ducklings. These ducklings will become fairly independent early on as the mother quickly teaches them to forage for food. However, they are not able to produce enough heat and will stay near their mother when cold, especially at night. Muscovy ducks can have up to three groups of babies in a single year and have no problem breeding in the winter. In many locations groups of Muscovy ducks adjust to the cold and will actually share parenting duties with the males, as well as with other ducks within the flock.

What's in a name?
There is a lot of debate about where the name Muscovy Duck comes from. One option, that seems fairly possible, is that the the Muscovite Company was responsible for bringing a number of these ducks from the Americas to Europe and other colonies. Therefore the duck was called the Muscovite duck and later the Muscovy duck. However, this isn't the only explanation out there. One version says that Muscovy stood for Moscow. Not that these creatures were from Moscow, but rather that they were foreign and therefore it was easy to name them after a popular foreign city. Still another version says that these ducks were called Musk Ducks for the difference in their oil glands. However, when science found that the oil wasn't actually musky they started calling the ducks Muscovy ducks. A final version says that these ducks were called Musco Ducks for their eating of the mosquitoes and that years later that was changed to Muscovy duck. Whatever, the reason, the name is now here to stay.

A bird for my table.
Muscovy ducks are eaten all over the world. In most places were ducks are eaten often this is a desired bird because it's meat is less greasy then other ducks and it is more like veal or roast beef then other birds. In England and other locations Muscovy Duck is often referred to as Barabury Duck when it is cooked. This term can also be used for a hybrid duck or "Mule Duck" with Muscovy genes involved.

On the list of pests.
In some locations the Muscovy is considered a pest. The Muscovy populations have done well all over the world and in many places are growing quickly. They are said to eat too much native food and therefore making it hard to other local animals to compete. They are also known for being aggressive when begging for food. In addition to this each Muscovy duck produces about 1/3 pound of droppings each day. These droppings are often left in yards, porches, decks, patios, lakes, pounds, and even swimming pools. This has lead some people to lash out against the Muscovy duck. Places were this is very popular include parts of Russia and most of Southern Florida. In these places Muscovy Ducks are often driven off and sometimes their population is dramatically reduced. One method for reducing the Muscovy population is by destroying the eggs. While the mother is still laying the eggs they are not yet forming into ducklings. At this point one can go in and shake the eggs while the mother is away. All the eggs should be placed back in the nest and two should be left unshaken. This will keep the hen busy incubating the eggs and taking care of the two ducklings. Other wise the mother will abandon the nest and will start over. Using this method a Muscovy Duck could be reduced down to producing six offspring a year instead of about 45. However, if one approaches the nest after incubation has begun then this will not destroy the eggs, but rather just leave the duckling deformed. In many cases people have seen the results of the deformed ducklings.

These odd ducks may be ugly, but they are fun to watch and interesting to spend time with. Their personalities make them great to be around and even great to raise. With their love of all types of food they help to keep pest populations down. Plus they make a tasty meal. With all of these good things going for them, they aren't a problem in most locations. The few locations that are having problems may have to come up with better solutions.