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98 free Ducks trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
40 free duck trivia questions with answers, covering the birds themselves and everything named after them. The natural-history rounds ask about mallards, eiders, wood ducks and the other dabblers and divers: how they float, what they eat, why their feathers shed water and where the great migrations go. Then it widens out to Donald Duck, rubber ducks, Peking duck, the Duck Hunt light gun and the old claim that a quack does not echo. Questions start easy enough for a family car ride and work up to ones that will surprise a birdwatcher. Every answer is checked against a real source, so you can settle the argument afterwards.
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Q 01What is a defining characteristic of most duck species' feet that aids in swimming?
Webbed
Ducks possess webbed feet, typically palmate, where three front toes are connected by a flexible membrane. This adaptation allows them to efficiently propel themselves through water like paddles.
Q 02What is a common collective noun for a group of ducks, especially when they are on the water?
Raft
Ducks on the water are a raft, a paddling or a bunch; on land the same birds become a badling, a brace or a safe.
Q 03Dabbling ducks like the mallard feed by up-ending at the surface; what makes up much of what they strain from the water?
Grasses and aquatic plants
Grasses and aquatic plants are the staple, strained through comb-like lamellae along the bill. Diving ducks such as mergansers go deeper and take fish.
Q 04Which duck's drake sports a pair of orange 'sail' feathers on its back?
Mandarin Duck
The male Mandarin Duck, native to East Asia, is widely considered one of the most beautiful ducks due to its unique and highly colorful feathers, including orange 'sails' on its back.
Q 05What is the most widely recognized sound commonly associated with a duck?
Quack
The classic quack comes mainly from female mallards and their close relatives; most duck species do not quack at all, producing whistles, coos, yodels and grunts instead. The claim that a quack does not echo was debunked at the University of Salford in 2003.
Q 06What is an adult male duck called?
Drake
An adult male duck is a drake; the female is a duck or hen and the young a duckling. Gander, cob and cockerel are the male goose, swan and chicken.
Q 07Ducks belong to which biological family of waterfowl, shared with geese and swans?
Anatidae
Ducks, geese and swans all belong to the family Anatidae, about 170 species worldwide; the screamers and the magpie goose are the only other waterfowl families.
Q 08Almost every breed of domestic duck descends from which single wild species?
Mallard
Almost all domestic ducks, from the Pekin to the Indian Runner, descend from the mallard; the Muscovy duck is the one exception, domesticated separately in the Americas.
Q 09Which sea duck's breast down, plucked by the female to line her nest, fills luxury pillows and quilts?
Common eider
Eiderdown comes from the common eider; the female plucks down from her breast to line the nest, and Icelandic farmers gather it after the ducklings leave.
Q 10Which domesticated waterfowl native to the Americas is commonly known in Spanish as the pato criollo?
Muscovy duck
The Muscovy duck, called pato criollo in Spanish, was domesticated in the Americas before European contact; feral flocks now live in Florida, Australia and New Zealand.
Q 11The English word 'duck' comes from an Old English word meaning what?
Diver
'Duck' comes from Old English duce, meaning diver, from the verb ducan, to dive; it replaced the older word ened, a cousin of German Ente and Dutch eend.
Q 12Which stiff-tailed waterfowl is nicknamed 'butterball' for its short, stout build?
Ruddy duck
The ruddy duck, a stiff-tailed diver, earned hunters' nickname 'butterball'; introduced to Britain in the 1940s, it was culled across Europe to protect the native white-headed duck.
Q 13What former North American name for the long-tailed duck was dropped in 2000?
Oldsquaw
The long-tailed duck was called oldsquaw in North America until the AOU dropped the name in 2000, after biologists warned it could offend Alaska Native tribes whose help conservation needed.
Q 21In Korea, pairs of carved wooden ducks are traditionally given as gifts at what kind of occasion?
Weddings
The species involved is the mandarin duck, which in Korean culture stands for peace, fidelity and plentiful offspring.
Q 22About how much did Garganornis ballmanni, the largest known member of the duck-goose-swan family, weigh?
22 kg (49 lb)
Garganornis ballmanni, a flightless goose from Miocene Italy, is estimated at about 22 kg (49 lb), heavier than the trumpeter swan, the largest living anatid at up to 17 kg.
Q 23The Long Island duck descends from white birds imported in the 1870s from which country?
China
Q 14What is Donald Duck's rarely used middle name?
Fauntleroy
Donald's full name is Donald Fauntleroy Duck; the middle name first appeared on his draft notice in the 1942 short Donald Gets Drafted.
Q 15Which 1943 Donald Duck propaganda short won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film?
Der Fuehrer's Face
Der Fuehrer's Face, in which Donald dreams he works in a Nazi munitions factory, won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film at the 1943 ceremony.
Q 16Who first voiced Donald Duck's barely intelligible quacking in 1934?
Clarence Nash
Nash had auditioned for Disney after hearing the studio wanted people who could make animal sounds; Tony Anselmo took over the role after him.
Q 17In which ocean did 28,800 Friendly Floatees bath toys wash overboard in 1992, aiding a study of currents?
Pacific
The container spilled in the North Pacific in January 1992, en route from Hong Kong to Tacoma; oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer tracked the 28,800 toys as they came ashore.
Q 18Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman is famous for touring the world with a giant inflatable version of what?
A rubber duck
His first giant duck, built in 2007, measured 16.5 by 20 by 32 metres and weighed roughly 600 kilograms.
Q 19Which Sesame Street Muppet serenades his bath toy with 'Rubber Duckie'?
Ernie
Ernie sings 'Rubber Duckie' to his bath toy; the 1970 song reached number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100, a rare feat for a Muppet.
Q 20Wood duck ducklings leave their tree-cavity nest the day after hatching by jumping from as high as what?
50 ft
They survive by landing in water or on soft leaf litter; the species had crashed in the late 1800s before nest boxes and hunting limits helped it rebound.
The white Pekin ducks were shipped from China in 1873; a few went to Connecticut, but the flock that thrived was on Long Island, which gave the American strain its name.
Q 24Caneton à la rouennaise requires the cooked bird's carcass to be processed how?
Squeezed in a press
The press extracts all the juices, which go into the sauce; the Rouen is a famous French breed used for the dish.
Q 25The Aylesbury duck, a classic English table breed, is named after the county town of which county?
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire's county town gave the white Aylesbury duck its name, and when Peking ducks first reached Britain in the 19th century they were crossed with Aylesburys for vigour.
Q 26Bianyifang, the first restaurant to specialise in Peking duck, opened in Beijing in which year?
1416
Bianyifang opened in 1416 during the Ming Yongle era, roasting ducks in a closed oven; Quanjude, whose founder developed the hung oven, followed in 1864.
Q 27Which future US Secretary of State was served Peking duck on his secret 1971 China visit?
Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger, then Nixon's national security adviser, ate Peking duck with Zhou Enlai on his secret July 1971 trip to Beijing; he became Secretary of State in 1973.
Q 28Nintendo's 1984 game Duck Hunt was played with which light-gun accessory?
NES Zapper
The NES Zapper only works on old CRT televisions, and the smirking dog was made impossible to shoot on console versions to keep the game family-friendly.
Q 29Roughly how many copies of Duck Hunt were sold worldwide, helped by NES bundles?
28 million
Duck Hunt sold about 28 million copies, most of them bundled with the NES; it grew out of a 1976 Nintendo light-gun toy, Beam Gun: Duck Hunt, by Gunpei Yokoi and Masayuki Uemura.
Q 30What is the drab, female-like summer plumage that male northern ducks moult into called?
Eclipse
During the eclipse period the birds are briefly flightless, so looking like a hen is useful camouflage.