They have large heavy bodies and small wings, which means two things:
-they fly fast for their size (but not ridiculously so, like small songbirds). You’ll never see them gliding lazily like raptors soaring on a thermal updraft; they are always hustling through the air.
-when they flap their wings, their body hardly wiggles at all, which gives them the appearance of gliding smoothly through the air in a manner remarkably different from most other birds.
They don’t do violent twists and turns like sparrows, but they will bank hard (and hold that bank angle) when circling a potential landing site.
When they are coming down for a water landing, they come in steep, like a Navy jet trying to slam down on a carrier deck, wings trimmed for high drag and feet forward and ready; just like the Navy jet, they touch down and slide to a stop within a few body lengths.
Next time you see a duck in the air, you’ll remember this thread and think “hm…fighter jets…”.
They are always hustling, but they do sometimes circle in thermals (while flapping).
To a glider pilot they can be quite useful, as they are interested only in strong thermals. Any time you see ducks (or similar birds, like loons) circling, that’s where you want to be.
As a duck hunter I’ve been in pretty close proximity to ducks coming in to land on a river (shouldn’t that be water on a river?). What’s amazing to me is the amount of noise a group can make when they circle down and fly just overhead. It’s an enormous “whoosh” and it will startle you if they’ve come in undected. Cool too to see them set their wings before landing and then put their feet out to ski briefly before coming to a stop.
When they take off again they’re not unlike a Harrier jump jet.
Joey P, I can’t wait to point that out to others next time we hunt.
I saw a Harrier take off a year or two just across the street from me. I thought I was hallucinating. I honestly had no idea what was going on. It looked like a normal jet (we have an air force base here), but it did, what I can only describe as donuts or drifting about 50 feet up in the air before it took off. It was one of the strangest things I’ve seen a plane do. And probably one of the loudest noises I’ve ever heard.
Tangentially related: This weekend, there was a lot of Canadian geese in the sky, flying in formation(s), honking away & making a lot of noise. Reminded me of the videos I’ve seen of WWII planes in formation, engines drowning & covering the sky. Either awesome or scary depending upon which air force it was.
I volunteered to help my neighbor discourage some mallards from living in her swimming pool:eek: I take two mini shnauzers over to scare them, so I’ve been watching their flying habits this month…very strong flyers I agree. And stubborn too.:rolleyes:
For performance flying though, the Coopers hawks are really magnificent. We keep parrots here, so I have to be on guard for them.
They seem to have all the flight tools, agility, soaring, super quick reflexes. I watched one fly into a 40 mph wind just by folded his wings in, like he was diving, and he just was RIPPING across the sky, dead into the wind!! Wow!!
I’ve always thought the same thing. You’ve managed to put into words what was just a vague feeling for me. I think the speed they fly and their size looks to scale. It is the speed you might imagine a scale fighter jet flying. In this way ducks look more like fighter jets than radio controlled fighter jets do (they go at ridiculous speeds and don’t seem to have enough inertia.)
In addition to what you’ve said, the bulk of their bodies, the length of their neck, and the shape of their “shoulders” is reminiscent of a fighter jet’s body, cockpit/nose area and engine air intakes.
Ducks also often fly in pairs, usually in a tight echelon formation, and will approach a landing area via a “buzz and break”, that is, they fly at low altitude and high speed, in to wind over the “runway”. Once satisfied it is safe to land they peel off on to the downwind leg and start slowing up and configuring for the landing. Abeam the runway threshold, they turn base and finals with wings arched for extra camber and legs extended.
Ducks are heavy enough that a landing on the ground in light winds can be entertaining as they try to run their legs fast enough to match their flying speed.
I used to spend hours with a friend of mine watching ducks landing in a park across from his house, didn’t think anyone else would understand.
