Mandarin ducks are like the Old World wood duck. They both are cavity nesters, which leads to wonderful footage of ducklings jumping out of trees. They are both in the same genus (Aix). The hen ducks are very similar to each other, but the males are a good example of how sexual selection can run amok!
Mandarins are actually becoming quite rare in the wild, but you can buy them very easily here. They breed well in captivity, and there are feral populations in the UK. I saw an old video of the homophobe duck shooters from Louisiana hunting wood ducks where they brought down an escaped Mandarin and couldn’t figure out what happened to that wood duck! Their zoological erudition ended at the bayou.
If their habitat continues to be destroyed in Asia, they will soon be like the aurochs, which now exists only in domestic and feral forms.
quotetheunquotesays
Wow, does that look photoshopped. Like a Suessian Wood Duck.
To me, a Wood Duck (the drake, anyway) already looks pretty Suessian; but I agree, the Mandarin is even more “out there”. Both are very beautiful, but I think I really do prefer the drake Wood, it’s more “tastefully” decorated.
Referring to what swestfall mentions @7, there’s a short video of this here: Four ducklings a-leaping
Larrysays
Beautiful plumage, the Mandarin. How could a lady duck resist?
Never seen a Mandarin, but one year, a Wood Duck nested in a tree at my place, and I got to see the ducklings leaping, and managed to get a few photos while they wandered about, checking out the food situation.
Wait, you’ve never seen Mandarin ducks? They’re really popular in the zoos here to brighten up the duck ponds
tezcatsays
I don’t mind watching ducklings leaping out of trees onto the forest floor, but I really don’t like when goslings pull a Homer Simpson down a rocky cliff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_JoetV3ZTQ
numerobissays
I’ve never seen a mandarin duck. I’ve held a wood duck in order to tag it. It didn’t seem to be very happy about it, and slashed me as a result.
Richard Smithsays
I saw a mandarin duck once. He was walking through a low doorway…
Wow, does that look photoshopped. Like a Suessian Wood Duck.
Pretty. So pretty, both of them. And I like the interaction.
Do you have a link to the original?
What even IS that? Because it looks so gorgeously improbable and made-up.
It’s real.
http://www.birdinginformation.com/birds/ducks/mandarin-duck/
I have to say, that’s one happy looking duck!
Mandarin ducks are like the Old World wood duck. They both are cavity nesters, which leads to wonderful footage of ducklings jumping out of trees. They are both in the same genus (Aix). The hen ducks are very similar to each other, but the males are a good example of how sexual selection can run amok!
Mandarins are actually becoming quite rare in the wild, but you can buy them very easily here. They breed well in captivity, and there are feral populations in the UK. I saw an old video of the homophobe duck shooters from Louisiana hunting wood ducks where they brought down an escaped Mandarin and couldn’t figure out what happened to that wood duck! Their zoological erudition ended at the bayou.
Mandarin ducks have been bred in captivity so long that we now have several morphs:
http://stanritar.tripod.com/mandarin_white.html
If their habitat continues to be destroyed in Asia, they will soon be like the aurochs, which now exists only in domestic and feral forms.
To me, a Wood Duck (the drake, anyway) already looks pretty Suessian; but I agree, the Mandarin is even more “out there”. Both are very beautiful, but I think I really do prefer the drake Wood, it’s more “tastefully” decorated.
Referring to what swestfall mentions @7, there’s a short video of this here:
Four ducklings a-leaping
Beautiful plumage, the Mandarin. How could a lady duck resist?
Never seen a Mandarin, but one year, a Wood Duck nested in a tree at my place, and I got to see the ducklings leaping, and managed to get a few photos while they wandered about, checking out the food situation.
Wait, you’ve never seen Mandarin ducks? They’re really popular in the zoos here to brighten up the duck ponds
I don’t mind watching ducklings leaping out of trees onto the forest floor, but I really don’t like when goslings pull a Homer Simpson down a rocky cliff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_JoetV3ZTQ
I’ve never seen a mandarin duck. I’ve held a wood duck in order to tag it. It didn’t seem to be very happy about it, and slashed me as a result.
I saw a mandarin duck once. He was walking through a low doorway…