Parentals

These little guys are Mountain Ducks, they are the largest of Australia's native duck species. These birds mate for life and return to the same nesting grounds year after year, which explains why I see them every year about this time with a brood of ducklings.  They are excellent parents, in the 2 years I have worked at the counsel I dont think Ive ever seen them lose a duckling. The way to distinguish between males and females are males have a white neck ring and a solid black head, while the females have a white ring around their eyes and bill. The male (on the rock) is rather aggressive towards other birds, and will chase away most of the other ducks from the lake while the ducklings are young. The female typically stays close to the ducklings. It is interesting to see that the ducklings arent afraid to stray a little from their parent while in the lake. Most ducklings we come across will follow their mother and never go more than 1m from her. These ducklings will quite happily swim several meters away from their parents, but will quickly group together when called. They tend to make more of a honking noise, rather then a quack like the ducks on the lake. Generally though they are pretty quiet.