Duck Behavior 101 - A Reference - What is normal and when to be worried.

[Amiga]

Please keep us updated.

 

[WafflesNTimmy]

Here is a behavior--running along side another duck (generally hens to drakes, but all have done this) and bobbing their head WAY to the side.  The target ducks pretty much ignores the bobbing duck, so it does not seem to be doing anything of note in terms of mating dances or whatever lololol.  It is not straight on bobbing, it is "run up to the side and bob the head away from the target duck".  Sometimes there is no target duck, and they just do it randomly.  I half wonder if one duck had a crick in his/her neck as a young'un and then they all decided that was what they were supposed to do

My female does that too!! She started after a somewhat traumatic new duck introduction, and we worried something was wrong. Does anybody have more info?

 

[Amiga]

My female does that too!! She started after a somewhat traumatic new duck introduction, and we worried something was wrong. Does anybody have more info?

I have not completely figured this one out. but it is not aggressive.

My ducks will do this to a duck that has been separated from the flock for a while, or sometimes a few will start doing it to another duck. I do know that a duck who is a special buddy to another duck will display this behavior somewhat regularly, as if to say, "I think you are great!"

So I think I am missing some subtle differences between the "where have you been????" and the "you are wonderful!!!"

But that's what I have observed.

 

[AimToMisbehave]

They can be so complex, so inscrutable....

Keep an eye on her - watch for any signs of lethargy, droopiness, staring off into space, loss of appetite, etc.  

But my gut feeling - based on the time of year - she may be on the lookout for a place to lay her eggs secretly.  So watch that one.  Don't want her to disappear.

Another possibility is she may have a strong foraging instinct that has her exploring a larger territory, or there could be a low-level conflict you don't see.

Watching them today, it seems like she has a tendency to just sort of charge off to exciting new foraging spots, and the others just get distracted from following her? She's always been kind of bold; it's the same hen that sasses my 60lb cattle dog through the fence whenever he checks out the pen. (She also ran up and pecked at the garage side door today after I let them out and got in my car! It's the door I always come out of with treats, so it was funny to see her give up on me when I got in the car, then go check if maybe another me would still come out of the garage with treats ) Either way, it still doesn't seem like she's actually avoiding the flock or in some kind of dispute so much as she just wants to go wherever she pleases whether or not the others follow.

 

[mommyofpeeps]

I have a question about my Rouen drakes behavior....he is 3 months old today and just starting to get his male colors in. I have noticed for the past couple of weeks that when he gets water he has this tendency to "rear up" and it sounds like push air out of his nose. He doesn't flap his wings when he does this. His nose is dry and he is being fed a meat bird diet. He has no other symptoms of anything being wrong other than this behavior. I can't seem to find anything about this behavior so I was hoping that maybe someone could shed some light on this behavior for me.

 

[Amiga]

Sounds to me like he is feeling frisky. Bean rears up and makes a belching noise when he feels studiy.

 

[barnababy]

One of my runner girls does this at my dog! It always looks like she's trying to boss him around or intimidate him!

And my main drake, Azula, also does the mohawk thing when he gets riled up... does anyone have good pictures or short videos of these behaviors?

My drake- who is usually really aggressive with animals, particularly my dogs because he likes to roughhouse- can't be trusted around his newest of Offspring who was a rescue from a raccoon... met a neighbor's Indian Runner last week when they were doing their daily walk to the canal and they became the fastest of friends. I let him out and he did that behavior, running about 18 inches directly behind at a diagonal and they just ran circles and figure eights and when the Runner duck would slow down so would mine and when he'd stop so would mine, and he'd wait then the runner would take off again and he got all excited never once attempted to nip him. No aggression. He just wanted to run and they looked like they were having the best time.

 

[Spyderk117]

Here is a video of my drake showing off two courtship displays.
The first one is a grunt whistle and the second one is head up tail up.
Enjoy!