male runner ducks

[CoriM]

I have two male runner ducks who are 3 months old. I've noticed that when they're swimming in the pond and they might be excited by the other ducks they will do something odd - kind of push themselves up, then put their heads down towards their chests and make a really strange noise - I hesitate to call it a bellow, because it's not THAT loud, but it's definitely weird and nothing I've ever heard from my female ducks before. I had ordered females, but these guys didn't arrive as ordered, so I'm enjoying seeing the differences between them and my girls. They love to stand up tall and look big and it seems like they give me a "report" everytime I come out. It's kind of cute. I hope they turn out to be nice boys when it comes to mating season....

 

[ruthhope]

Is it a belching sound? My Pekin drake started behaving like yours, just last week. Its not just when he is in water. It sounded like a deep belch and so I searched under "burping" on this forum and found that several folks have male ducks that do this. Some said its a male display behavior; others said its adjusting their crop. Our other male Pekin doesn't do it and neither do our male muscovies. The one that does it is otherwise fit and well and behaving normally, so I am going with adjusting his crop!

 

[CoriM]

Maybe....I don't know how to describe the sound. That's interesting - I would say it's definitely some sort of male display. I've searched online but haven't seen anything about it!

 

[Lauraduck]

Hahaha! We have a runner drake too, and thought the same thing the first few times he did that. He does it whenever he's in the pool and wants some lovin' He's just showing off for his ladies and fluffing up his feathers I think it's their mating call!