Muscovy

Description

Muscovies are a Large, Heavy breed, With Drakes being twice the size of ducks. Extremely good at foraging due to long, sharp claws on their feet. They are a unique looking duck with bright red crests (called caruncles) around their eyes. It is the only domestic duck not to have descended from the Wild Mallard. It belongs to a sub group of perching ducks called “greater wood ducks”. They are agile and speedy birds. They lay 60 to 150 eggs a year.

Use

The Muscovy duck is a multi purpose bird. Muscovy ducks are less noisy, and even though they are not completely silent, they do not actually quack (except in cases of extreme stress). The drake has a low breathy call, and the hen a quiet trilling coo.

Many backyard duck owners report that Muscovy ducks have more personality than mallard-derived ducks, often comparing them to dogs for their tameness and willingness to approach owners for food or stroking. They can be very curious as well. They are excellent mothers, and will go broody with regularity.

Muscovy breeds are popular because they have stronger-tasting meat sometimes compared to roast or veal. The meat is lean when compared to the fatty meat of mallard-derived ducks. They are known as Le Canard de Barbarie in France and are used extensively for Foie Gras production.  

Although the Muscovy duck is a tropical bird, it adapts well to cooler climates. Also, due to their genealogy, are not able to breed with other species of domestic duck and provide fertile offspring. Any ducklings, Muscovy and a domestic breed pairing, will provide sterile offspring.

Showing

Weight: Drake: 4.5 – 7 Kg, Duck: 2.5 to 4 Kg.

The bird is predominantly black and white, with the back feathers being iridescent and glossy in males, while the females are more drab. Other colors, such as lavender or all-white, are also seen. The amount of white on the neck and head is variable, as well as the bill, which can be yellow, pink, black, or any mixture of these colors. It may have white patches or bars on the wings. Both sexes have pink or red wattles around the bill, those of the male being larger and more brightly colored.

In the drake, length is about 86 cm (34 in) while the duck is much smaller, at 64 cm (25 in) in length.

Muscovies were standardised in the British Waterfowl Standards in 1954 and there are 9 different colour varieties standardised.

 They first entered the American Standard of Perfection in 1874 and are standardised in White, Black, Blue and Chocolate.

History

"Muscovy" is an old name for the region of Russia surrounding Moscow, but these ducks are neither native there nor were introduced there before they became known in Western Europe. It is not quite clear how the term came about; it very likely originated between 1550 and 1600, but did not become widespread until somewhat later.

In one suggestion, it has been claimed that the Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands traded these ducks to Europe occasionally after 1550;^[14] this chartered company became eventually known as the "Muscovy Company" or "Muscovite Company" so the ducks might thus have come to be called "Muscovite ducks" or "Muscovy ducks" in keeping with the common practice of attaching the importer's name to the products they sold.^[14] But while the Muscovite Company initiated vigorous trade with Russia, they hardly, if at all, traded produce from the Americas; thus, they are unlikely to have traded C. moschata to a significant extent.

Alternatively—just as in the "turkey" (which is also from North America, not Turkey) and the "guineafowl" (which are not limited to Guinea)—"Muscovy" might be simply a generic term for an exotic place, in reference to the singular appearance of these birds. This is evidenced by other names suggesting the species came from lands where it is not actually native, but from where much "outlandish" produce was imported at that time (see below).

Yet another view—not incompatible with either of those discussed above—connects the species with the Muisca, a Native American nation in today's Colombia. The duck is native to these lands also, and it is likely that it was kept by the Muisca as a domestic animal to some extent. It is conceivable that a term like "Muisca duck", hard to comprehend for the average European of those times, would be corrupted into something more familiar. Likewise, the Miskito Indians of the Miskito Coast in Nicaragua and Honduras heavily relied on it as a domestic species, and the ducks as well may have been named after this region.

In English, it is called The Muscovy-Duck, though this is not transferred from Muscovia [the Neo-Latin name of Muscovy], but from the rather strong musk odour it exudes

Essentially a bird from the Tropics, the Muscovy Duck is native to some parts of North and South America but can also be found feral from time to time in Europe. handling them so be careful).