Ducks with Green Heads

What first occurs to your mind when one says "to waddle"? Usually: waddling ducklings following their mothers.

Ducks have two techniques they use to feed themselves. While swimming, without plunging underwater, some of them feed on insects and plants. You often see them searching for food, with their head and half of their bodies underwater. Some kinds of ducks, on the other hand, search for food by diving underwater. Their wide webbed feet help them to dive underwater but are not good for walking on land. That is why they only leave the water occasionally, except in the breeding season.

Water fowl such as ducks have air in their bodies. This is one of the reasons they float on the surface of the water. In the duck's body, there exist air sacs that look like tiny balloons. When these sacs are filled with air, they help the duck to float. When the duck wants to dive, it pumps the air out of the sacs and readily dives under the water since less air remains in its body.

These aside, most water fowl are good swimmers. The web between their toes is one of the reasons for this. When they push one foot back, these webs broaden to provide a better pushing force. Of course, it is not a coincidence that all these features required for good swimming exist in water fowl. All these features have been granted water birds by Allah, the Creator of all living beings.

Drakes, the male ducks, always have brighter feathers than female ducks. This is an important protection for the female ducks because they incubate the eggs in their nests, since, thanks to their pale colours, predators cannot see them. Their pale colours being quite suitable for camouflage, female ducks cannot be seen even at close range. The bright feathers of drakes, on the other hand, attract the predator's attention to them.

When a predator comes close to the nest, the drake takes wing and makes a great deal of noise, making a serious effort to keep the predator away from the nest.

Adult ducks, who stroll in groups, occasionally take care of their babies. Drakes do not incubate. Just a few hours after the ducklings emerge from the eggs, they begin to swim and feed on their own. The newly hatched ducklings know how to feed themselves and to survive, by Allah's inspiration to them.

Think about yourself. What would happen if you were allowed in the water as soon as you were born? Without doubt, as soon as you gulped enough water you would die of suffocation. But, since our Lord has granted ducklings the ability to swim at birth, they don't drown.

Do you know that ducks fly at a speed of 50 kilometres (31 miles) per hour? Do you also know that they avert wild animals by continuously changing their direction? Well, can anyone tell how ducks know to change their direction? Surely, as in the cases of the features Allah granted all other living beings, this is also a feature given to ducks by Allah.