Ancona Ducks

[MemawSwift]

My females do the head bobbing thing. I just figured they were giving the drake the "and I'll tell you another thing" speech! They always seem to yelling when they are doing it!

 

[newducklings]

Well today in their pool they were all doing the head bobbing and the one that was on top of the pekin almost had the pekin on it lol. So I dont know now. They act like boys and girls sometimes

 

[newducklings]

Boy or girl they are all cute ducks! Who is loud and who has a raspy quack? Voice sexing is what they say is best if they weren't vent sexed. Otherwise you just have to wait for eggs. Never heard of bobbing heads meaning boy or girl, but I'm fairly new to ducks

 

[newducklings]

Thank you and that was something I looked up about them it said males normally head bob to show their readiness to mate and the females lay the head and neck straight out. But im not sure. And well I have a hard time telling by voice so I will either have to wait for eggs or drake feather lol

 

[Alice28]

Thank you and that was something I looked up about them it said males normally head bob to show their readiness to mate and the females lay the head and neck straight out. But im not sure. And well I have a hard time telling by voice so I will either have to wait for eggs or drake feather lol

My two anconas were both vent sexed and we were told they are girls, but they both sound very different so I know what your talking about! I don't know if I'd say either are raspy, but being new to ducks it hard to know what a male would sound like. The head thing is new to me, but good info to know!

 

[willowbirdks]

I'm also new to ducks, and there was about a month where we were second guessing every peep, quack, and honk to tell us gender. But my ducks are now 16 weeks, and they consistently make the male or female quack that you can hear on the Majestic Waterfowl link that is posted everywhere. Drake feathers are starting to show and prove us right, but honestly the quacking is now very very clear.

I have had a hard time telling what was meant by raspy, but listening to those two audio files multiple times made it really clear. My drakes sound almost froggy! My lone lady is very ducky in sound.

I've not seen much behavior at this age that seems gender specific. The hen is the alpha duck, and she head bobs if she needs to direct traffic. All males but one follow her directions without argument.

 

[SilkieSensation]

I have noticed with my anconas that there is a pretty distinct voice difference from day 1 with my ducklings. It has taken a few years to pick up on the difference & I've listened to a lot of ducklings peep in that time. I listen to them in groups of 3-4 to be able to compare birds easier. The girls even start out with a sharper sounding peep & the boys seem to be muted. I always double check by vent sexing, but none have been wrong yet.

 

[learycow]

So here is a picture of my duckling with the pattern.

 

[Espresso]

What's everyone's favorite color? I'm not a big fan of overly marked or pencilled but I'd be hard pressed to pick a favorite color. They are all such beautiful birds.

 

[SilkieSensation]

I collect the rainbow