Nature Note #132: Sea Ducks. Sea Ducks Swim.
Sea ducks. Bay ducks. Marsh ducks. So many kinds of ducks! For those of you that think ducks are those aquatic birds that swim around in ponds, eating bread, and gracing the pages of the Boston-based classic Make Way for Ducklings , you would be right about 1 out of 39 times (39 being the number of regularly occurring species in North America). The most common and easily recognized duck is the Mallard ( Anas platyrhynchos ) and generally speaking, is the one most people think of when they think of a duck. Mallards at Hager Pond in Marlboro, MA. However, as the title suggests, the waterfowl family isn't simply one species. The birds I want to talk about today are some of the toughest, roughest, and even, dare I say it, attractive ducks in the Anatidae family! The name "sea duck" originates in several older documents including the earlier versions of Roger Tory Peterson's field guides and refers to their preferred winter habitat of coastlines, harbors, and the o