Can Ducks See In Color?

[Goat_Walker]

Im being totally serious. It seems that my ducks have decided on three options :

1) My oldest drake gets my three mature girls and then the four youngsters go off ont their own and the F?W indian runner takes my four buff cross girls.

2) The old Geeser has two laying girls with him and the Indian Runner drake has the five Buff ( crosses ) and teh four youngsters have their own flcok


OR


3) It seems that now most of the time I see All my Buff ducks with the fawn and white runner drake in one flock and the old Geezer ( Domestic bibbed mallard ) has the Cayuga, Magpie, 2 magpie crosses, the cayuga cross and the dark scovie gal.


I mean seriously! I have a color cordinated flock!!! So can ducks see in color?

 

[rainplace]

I've wondered the same thing. When I first brought black ducks home, my goose hated them. She would go after anything dark in the pool, including the blue that was her friend. The blue could come back in once she was done with her little tizzy, but it was like she was only going after the dark ones.

All my black ducks hang out together, and all my light ones hang out together. My blue hangs out with both. To further separate them, all the silkies hang out together even though I got them months a part. The first silkies came with the gander and they don't like each other. The second batch of silkes came with the black runners, but only one of the runners will sometimes run around with the silkies.

So it seems that mine at least separate by both size and color.

I have some BEI's on order for this fall, we'll see who they hook up with.

p.s. my little male silky goes after anything. the other male silky only goes after the one he came here with. the male runner only likes one of the black runners, they are always nose to nose making that heart shape... so cute. and the gander likes my first black runner.... the fawns girls go after each other and the blue...

 

[duckboatprincess]

My two cayugas hang out together and then my pekin, rouen, and welsh harlequin hang out together. I think that the WH unites the rouen and the pekin lol. The rouen and pekin have been together since they were little ducklings. The WH is the newest. The black cayuga came about 3 weeks before the blue cayuga and they tend to stick together. It's kinda funny. Hey... maybe this means the cayugas will mate and then the WH will mate with the other girls!! I wonder what a pekin x wh or a rouen x wh would look like.

 

[tia]

That is so funny! I have four fawn/white Runners and 3 black Runners. Most of the time the three black runners sleep together, and the four fawn/white sleep together. I thought it was just a coincidence, but maybe not.

Tia

 

[Kev]

Yes ducks can see color.. otherwise why would so many of the wild duck males be extremely colorful? That includes wild color mallards- stunning birds.

Many species of birds actually can see a wider range of colors, including infrared.. some species of birds are much more spectacular when seen through lens that makes infrared visible to human eyes.

 

[Wifezilla]

Thanks Kev. I figured it had to be something like that or the males of so many breeds wouldn't be so colorful.