Pretty much a newbie duck owner here - We got 3 call ducks a week ago, drake & 2 females that were all raised together and about 1 1/2yrs old. We noticed the 2 girls, make this sort of clicking/chirping noise and dip their heads very quickly to one side in sort of a syncipated manner. Cute, almost like a little dance. They do this when they are excited and when the drake chases the 2 BEI females out of the pool - we already had them and they aren't digging their new "friends" so much. Is this a kind of mating thing or just some sort of greeting? I never see the drake do it. We got the younger BEI at about 3mo old and she had never been around another duck - only people. Then we got an older BEI to keep her company, but she is very shy. The younger one likes to go out of the pen and roam around - now I've noticed when she returns, the older BEI runs up to her and starts making the same little noises and dipping behavior as the call duck girls. Could she be confused and think the other BEI is a drake? I'm sure both of them are girls, cuz they can sure do a lot of quacking. Just wondering, ducks can be a lot of fun to watch and I'm spending way to much time doing it.
Some of my runner girls do the staccato call, head-dipping you describe. I am not entirely sure what it communicates, but I get the feeling, based on who does it around whom, it is an acknowledgement of social position. Probably reading too much into it, but I see some ducks do it around the spokesduck - the one who hollers the most and loudest, who also is known to shove the others away from "her" food pan. Sometimes they do it to me! I don't know if it's a challenge, or a vote of confidence