Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae bird family. The ducks are divided between several different subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh and salt water.
Ducks exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, grains and aquatic plants, fish, insects, and the like. The sound made by some female ducks is called a "quack"; a common (and false) urban legend is that quacks do not produce an echo (false, because the acoustic variances of both a duck's quack and its echo are so similar, they almost swallow one another).
The males (drakes) of northern species often have showy plumage, but this is moulted in summer to give a more female-like (hen) appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. In many species, moulting birds are temporarily flightless; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration.
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