Discover Nature this week with Missouri’s dabblers and divers.
Dabblers and divers are two main types of ducks, and you can tell them apart by the way they eat, fly and look.
Dabblers (also called puddle ducks) ride high along the water, skimming the surface for food. They’ll tip their head underwater and stick their bottoms straight up in the air while munching on seeds, grains, plants, insects and worms. Divers ride low in deep, open waters and can dive down 40 feet or more to feed on fish, snails and invertebrates.
Divers legs are at the back of the body with larger feet for diving and power swimming. Most often, they dive in shallow water from a foot-and-a-half to six feet deep, staying under for 10 to 20 seconds. To dive, the birds depress their body feathers which squeezes out air and makes them less buoyant. Then their feet will thrust their arched body under. They'll then use their legs like paddles while steering with their head and tail.
Dabblers wings are bigger, allowing them to shoot straight up out of the water like a rocket. Divers smaller wings and compact body make taking flight more of a runway-like approach with fast wing beats and moving feet across the water until they reach enough speed for lift off.
Duck feathers are waterproof, and they maintain this by grooming themselves and picking oil from a gland at the base of their tail. They spread the oil through their feathers as they preen.
More information about ducks in Missouri can be found online at missouriconservation.org
