What is a duck?
Well, a duck is the common name for a number of species in the family of water birds.

What is a drake?
A drake is the name of the male duck, because the female is in fact the duck!

And a duckling?
A duckling is a young or baby duck.

How does a duck look like?
It has a wide blunt flat beak, short legs and webbed feet adapted for swimming.

What other webbed-feet birds do you know?
Swans, penguins, geese, pelicans...

What does the duck love?
Water! Because ducks are aquatic birds, once they are born ducklings look right away for a place with water: rivers, lakes, even a small ditch will do. And they know already how to swim!

Why don't ducks get wet when they dive?
They have waterproof feathers!

What is a quack?
It is the harsh sound made by a duck! It is the duck's voice.

Are ducks useful to man?
Domestic ducks are farmed for their meat and eggs and even for their feathers.

Are ducks an easy prey?
Yes, they have many predators. Particularly in the wild, ducks are shot by man for food or sports. But they are also hunted by aquatic predators such crocodilians, and even by other waterbirds, such as the heron. Brooding females and particularly ducklings are also easy preys for terrestrial mammals such as foxes. In flight, ducks are safe from all but man hunters and large birds such as falcons, hawks and eagles.

What does the expression "Quacks like a duck" mean?
It means that something is not what it appears to be, and it stands as a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck."

Duck and its ducklings in the Geneva Lake, CH
Duck in the Bristol Zoo, UK	Duck in the Geneva Lake, CH