🦆 Junior Duckologist zone
Become a duck detective!
Learn the ducks on your local pond, collect stickers and play the Duck Dash game. No experience needed — just curiosity!
Your starter collection
Meet your first ducks
Click any duck to see real photos and learn its superpower.
Green list
🏠
Mallard
Anas platyrhynchos
The UK’s most familiar duck — the ancestor of nearly all domestic ducks and the benchmark every other species is measured against.
- Length
- 50–65 cm
- Wingspan
- 81–98 cm
- Feeds
- Dabbler
Green list
🏠
Tufted Duck
Aythya fuligula
A smart black-and-white diving duck with a jaunty dangling crest, common on lakes and reservoirs.
- Length
- 40–47 cm
- Wingspan
- 65–76 cm
- Feeds
- Diver
Introduced list
🏠
Mandarin Duck
Aix galericulata
An elaborately decorated, jewel-bright duck from East Asia that has made itself at home in British woodlands.
- Length
- 41–49 cm
- Wingspan
- 65–75 cm
- Feeds
- Dabbler
Amber list
🏠
Common Eider
Somateria mollissima
The UK’s largest and heaviest duck, a hardy sea duck famous for the insulating down that lines its nest.
- Length
- 60–71 cm
- Wingspan
- 95–106 cm
- Feeds
- Sea duck
Red list
❄️
Common Pochard
Aythya ferina
A round-headed diving duck whose drake glows chestnut and silver on a winter lake.
- Length
- 42–49 cm
- Wingspan
- 72–82 cm
- Feeds
- Diver
Amber list
❄️
Gadwall
Mareca strepera
A quietly elegant grey duck whose subtlety hides a feisty habit of stealing food from coots.
- Length
- 46–56 cm
- Wingspan
- 84–95 cm
- Feeds
- Dabbler
Amber list
❄️
Eurasian Teal
Anas crecca
Our smallest duck — a dainty, fast-flying dabbler that gathers in busy, twittering flocks on marshes.
- Length
- 34–38 cm
- Wingspan
- 53–59 cm
- Feeds
- Dabbler
Amber list
❄️
Eurasian Wigeon
Mareca penelope
A neat, round-headed duck of estuaries whose whistling flocks are a sound of the British winter.
- Length
- 45–51 cm
- Wingspan
- 75–86 cm
- Feeds
- Grazer
Amber list
❄️
Northern Shoveler
Spatula clypeata
A dabbling duck with an outsized spatula bill, built for filtering tiny food from the water.
- Length
- 44–52 cm
- Wingspan
- 74–82 cm
- Feeds
- Dabbler
Amber list
☀️
Garganey
Spatula querquedula
A small, secretive summer migrant duck — the only duck that winters in Africa and breeds here.
- Length
- 37–41 cm
- Wingspan
- 59–67 cm
- Feeds
- Dabbler
Green list
❄️
Common Goldeneye
Bucephala clangula
A striking black-and-white diving duck of lakes and coasts, famous for head-breaking courtship displays.
- Length
- 44–50 cm
- Wingspan
- 65–78 cm
- Feeds
- Diver
Green list
🏠
Goosander
Mergus merganser
A large, sleek sawbill duck — a fish-hunter with a long, serrated red bill.
- Length
- 58–69 cm
- Wingspan
- 78–94 cm
- Feeds
- Diver
Top Duck Dash scores
- 1. Quackers99 5141
- 2. TealTitan 5000
- 3. WigeonWiz 4181
- 4. WigeonWiz 4074
- 5. EiderFan 3843
Print your journal
Download our free nature journal page, grab a pencil, and tick off ducks as you spot them on your walk.
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