Muscovy Duck

• GeneralIts domestic form, the Muscovy duck, is kept throughout Latin America.
• It is the only domestic duck in the world that does not descend from the mallard: every other one does.
• Indigenous American peoples were already keeping it in pre-Columbian times, long before the Europeans arrived.
• Crossed with the domestic duck it produces the mulard, a sterile hybrid between two different genera that is used on a huge scale in meat and foie gras production.
• It is one of the few ducks that perches and nests in trees, and for that it has strong claws on its toes.
• It was domesticated by the indigenous peoples of the Americas long before the arrival of the Europeans, and it is one of the world's only two domestic ducks, alongside the mallard. In Spain it is known as pato criollo or pato mudo.
• The 'mute' of its Spanish name pato mudo is literal: it does not quack. The male gives a hiss and the female a soft coo, very different from the quacking of other ducks.
• The red, warty caruncles on the face belong to the domestic form and to adult males; wild birds are black with a greenish sheen and white patches on the wing.
• The size dimorphism is enormous: the male can weigh twice as much as the female.
• Wild and feral populations mix, so many records outside its range correspond to escaped domestic birds.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bird)

Habitat & environment

Wooded wetlands, rivers and tropical lagoons

Size at birth

Precocial yellow ducklings with brown markings on tail and wings, which stay with the mother for 60 to 70 days

Sexual maturity

About 28 weeks in females and 29 in males (figures from captive birds)

Gestation / incubation

About 35 days of incubation, by the female

Litter / clutch size

8-16 eggs, laid in a tree hollow

Sources consulted: EFSA 2023, Welfare of ducks, geese and quail on farm (Scientific Opinion); secuenciación de genoma completo de anátidas domésticas; Wikipedia (Domestic duck, Domestic Muscovy duck, Mulard); Universidad de Córdoba (Colombia), caracterización morfométrica de Cairina moschata domestica; IUCN Red List; Eikelberg et al. 2025, Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica; Linnaeus 1758

Best time: All year round; the domestic form is present in rural areas and parks across half the world