The pond near our house is home to a lot of ducks. When we first moved to the area it was mostly mallard and black duck varieties, but the past few years have seen a dramatic shift to a muscovy duck population. They wander the neighborhood looking for food and places to nest. We have one particular male muscovy that I believe has claimed our house as his house. We call him our “guard duck”, so beware. 🙂

Actually the crazy thing with him is we joked about him being a guard duck, but he’s rather a large male and has become a bit too conditioned to us feeding him. He will fly directly at people in hopes they have food, and when you see big him with his large wingspan coming straight at you, it is intimidating the first time you see it. Certainly makes delivery guys and others visiting the house step back a bit. But no, I don’t consider him any sort of serious part of a home security plan; it’s just funny.

Within the past some weeks, we noticed a sudden upsurge in the number of muscovy’s that visit our house. We might have a dozen, given or take a couple, at one time. Of course, this makes for some interesting bird watching because they have rather interesting mannerisms, behaviors, and interactions with each other. I find myself just watching them for large stretches of time because well… I’d like to figure our what they’re doing, and I can do all of this watching from the comfort of my home.

For example, all of this head bobbing and tail wagging:

Exactly what makes one bob better than another bob? Whoa! Jim there was really bobbing his head something fierce today! better stay away from him!  🙂

Or we’ve recently observed female muscovy’s fighting. Much flapping and jumping about, then “tangling” up their necks in an attempt to get on the other one’s back. When the one female wins she essentially stands on and over the other (dominant position), much head bobbing ensues by her and others around her, but what’s really interesting is how the loser flattens herself on the ground and just lies there even tho there’s nothing truly holding her town.

Granted on the base level you can figure out what they’re doing, but I can’t help but wonder about the nuances in their behavior and what it’s actually communicating. It’s fascinating to watch.

Thing is, it’s hard to find anything online about behaviors. You find a lot about cooking them (supposedly very tasty), about raising them for food, maybe some basic information, and even found a whole website dedicated to them which was one of the better resources.