Ducklings are quite fragile birds, they need their mothers around to keep them safe from any potential predators or anything else that would harm them.
But their mothers protect them even when she isn’t around
This article explores whether ducks hide their babies and where mother ducks choose to hide their babies.
Table of Contents
Do ducks hide their babies?
Unfortunately, abandoned ducklings aren’t uncommon, mother ducks can sometimes abandon their baby ducklings but some mothers will hide their ducklings on purpose.
This article explores where a mother duck may hide her ducklings.
In the nest:
One of the places that a mother duck will hide her ducklings is in the nest.
This is the mother’s chosen hiding place both when her ducklings are still growing in the egg and after the ducklings hatch.
Before laying the mother duck will look for a nesting site in an isolated location where she will be hidden from predators and her eggs will be hidden from predators too.
This can be in a chimney, in suburban backyards, or anywhere that is sheltered with a lot of vegetation where the mother can camouflage herself.
She will also build the nest using leaves, grasses, and her down feathers which will help to camouflage her and her brood. This will keep the family well hidden.
If she does leave her nest at some point, to get some food or to stretch her legs, then she will cover the eggs with vegetation and leaves to keep the nest safe from jays, crows, foxes, minks, and rats.
The mother will also sit on her eggs, this helps to hide her eggs from predators. The mother would rather the predators attack her than her eggs.
She will sit on her eggs for long periods of time making sure that her eggs are not only kept warm enough to grow but to ensure that they are hidden from predators.
Once the ducklings have hatched the nest also serves as a good hiding place. The ducklings don’t leave the nest early on in their lives so they are hidden from predators under the mother duck in the nest.
Feeding in predator-free areas:
The ducklings cannot live in the nest forever, the mother will travel with the ducklings but she will make sure to travel in areas that she knows are predator free.
These areas are also usually hidden by vegetation so that predators, who would otherwise attack the family, don’t see the family.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other bird related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Egg Broke Inside Of Duck, Why Do Ducks Bite Your Feet?, How To Communicate With Ducks, How To Play With Baby Ducks, Duckling Keeps Getting Stuck On Back, Why Does My Duck Jump On Me, How Does A Mother Duck Take Care Of Her Ducklings, Chick Sitting Back On Legs, Why Does My Duck Lay Flat?
