OK I was walking over the Chicago River and thought I saw a duck in a tree. And today I confirmed it. I was at the river, so I bought some bread and fed it to the ducks (there were four of them). They were all eating, then I scared them and three ran into the water and one flew into the tree and was sitting on a branch.
Granted it’s a big limb but still I thought “DUCKS DON’T PERCH IN TREES.” Yet this Mallard Duck is sitting in a tree. I know there are a few kinds of ducks that do go in trees but not mallards. LOL
So my question is what other animals have you seen doing things they aren’t supposed to be doing. I mean wild animals. We all know cats like to ride Roombas
While the common ducks of American wetlands customarily don’t use trees for “safe spaces”, there’s no reason why they cannot, and some occasionally will. There are ducks that inhabit wetwoods or normal woods with streams or ponds nearby, which do customarily nest in trees. Cf. the wood duck.
Technical nitpick: A duck cannot “perch” in a tree for the same reason you or I can’t – ducks’ feet are not built for perching. Perching birds have a backwards-pointing toe that enables them to grasp a branch firmly, like a human hand wrapping fingers one way and thumb the other for a firm grasp. (Colibri may be willing to specify what are perching birds – I believe most Passeriforms and Piciforms are included; I’m not sure what else.) But anseriforms (ducks, geese, and swans) do not have that sort of foot structure.
At my aunt’s house, we once saw a doe walking around with birds sitting on its back. I hesitate to say “perched” because I’m not sure if they were grabbing with that backwards, but there were a few birds on its back and it was just walking around. We were flummoxed.
Muscovy ducks, for example, have claws and I believe they’ll happily sit in trees. I could take a muscovy duckling, perch it on my finger, and rotate it till the bird was practically parallel to the ground, easily hanging on and glaring at me.
Well, it’s been an education. “Perching birds” (=Passeriformes) have a tendon that automatically locks the rear-pointing toe so they grasp without effort. Many other birds “perch” in the sense of grasping tree limbs with their toes – raptors, owls, woodpeckers, and quite a shopping lists. Most ducks simply “perch” by standing on a limb, with their feet curving slightly to match the curvature of the limb, in much the same way as a barefoot boy standing in a tree would. Some anseriforms apparently have claws to anchor themselves – who knew?
The only generalization you can make about birds is that you can’t make any generalizations abpit birds.
When I was growing up, one of my aunts kept three hens and one rooster. Imagine my surprise walking out of the woods next to her house one afternoon, hearing a ruckus, looking up and seeing all four frickin’ chickens sitting in the branches of the pine tree next to the back porch.
Up until then I didn’t realize chickens could fly at all.
