What in the world is she doing?

[Speceider]

That's known as inciting behavior. A mallard-type duck moves her head towards the back (a pintail will move down her chest). The drake normally respond with w turn-the-back-of-the-head display and trys to lead her away. Johnsgard's book,"Handbook of Waterfowl behavior" describes the courtship displays of all waterfowl >he has less description on daily maintenance behavior.

Clint

 

[lovin my birds]

Quote:
Ducks can mature at 6 months of age just like chickens. The start flirting at about 5 months. At least my girls did, with me and their drakes. They also will mate before they start laying.

 

[hcppam]

LOVE is in the air!

 

[desertdarlene]

That means she likes you and is saying hello. Usually, it's flirting and it's done between males and females before mating. But, I've seen ducklings do it to their moms and drakes do it to each other and to me.

 

[mickeymousears]

so this morning I decided to beat her to it, and bobbed my head the minute I saw her and she quacked at me LMAO!!! I love my quackers!

some people get joy from jumping out of airplanes or making millions of dollars.... my joy comes from watching my animals

 

[FenDruadin]

Here's my take. All social animals have a range of body language with subtle variations. Some have more variation than others (consider how much a human can say with facial muscles alone compared to the static face of a duck). But in all cases that I know of, there are "families" of body language that are related to each other.

One "family" is "submissive," "non-threatening," "friendly," "flirty."

It makes sense that they're related because in order to be friendly, you need to demonstrate that you are not a threat. And in order to flirt, you need to demonstrate that you're friendly.

In humans, this is usually smiling, head ducking, peering out of corners or tops of eyes (rather than directly), widening of eyes, and certain types of laughing (which isn't strictly body language, but it's related). We use these signals to tell someone, "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you," "Please don't hurt me, I'm not a threat," "I like you," and, "Hey baby, let's get it ON!" And everything in between. Which message is intended is usually clear from context and subtleties of body language.

Ducks are the same way, only they are even more limited in the subtleties of what they can convey, so you must depend even more on context.

Head bobbing falls into the "submissive," "non-threatening," "friendly," "flirty" gesture family. So maybe she thinks you're a drake and she wants to mate. Or maybe she's just saying hello, I like you. Or maybe it's "please don't hurt me!" (but probably not). In any event, she is most definitely talking to you and yes... wouldn't it be nice if someone would write a book about this?

 

[Stormy Autumn]

Maybe she's saying "Hey, mom, I could really use a man around here if you know what I mean!"

 

[mickeymousears]

if you search in the right places, you'll find extensive websites on parrot communications - even specific parrots such as "cockatiel". There is a great site on rabbit communication behaviors (talk about reading body language). Im guessing there are millions on cats and dogs. I've looked for similar sites on chickens and ducks and unfortunately all I found was things on hunting them

I know there are people out there who know what every little tail wag and feather fluff mean - wont someone please write it all down, so ppl like me can learn????

As im writing this my cockatiel is trying to communicate with me from the other room... he's using sounds he only uses for very special occasions (like the rare times he not the center of attention) LMAO!!!

 

[mickeymousears]

oh and she has a man... I have a male pekin, her- who is rouen, and a female mallard. but they are only 2 months old (born may 3rd)

 

[dumb_cluck]

I don't know bout that. I had mallards and before they were sexually aware of what was going on,when I approached, there was much head bobbing going on.

Read my blog.........
I think they were associating me with "pleasure"even though it was only for "food". IMHO of course.