Which Duck Breed Are You?

Key takeaways

• Pekin is large, white and orange-billed, and the meat duck of the United States — about 90 percent of US duck meat, says eXtension.
• Indian Runner stands upright and runs rather than waddles (eXtension); the Livestock Conservancy traces it to ducks herded out to rice paddies and fields in India and Indonesia.
• Khaki Campbell is the great laying breed, and unshowy about it.
• Muscovy is not a mallard-derived duck at all. It is a separate species that perches in trees and is usually silent rather than quacking (Cornell).
• Call ducks are small and startlingly loud; Cayugas look black until the light turns them green and purple.

The six breeds, properly

The quiz is for fun. The breeds are real, and if you are choosing birds rather than taking a quiz, this is the part that matters.

Pekin. Large, white and orange-billed, and the meat duck of the United States: eXtension says “Around 90 percent of the duck meat produced in the United States is from the Pekin.” It cannot fly, and eXtension counts it a general-purpose breed because the hens also lay fairly large numbers of eggs — 140–175 a year on Metzer Farms’ chart for its Jumbo Pekin, 100–180 in the University of Kentucky’s table. Metzer scores its temperament 5.5, mid-way on its scale from 1 (very calm) to 9 (more nervous).

Indian Runner. Stands upright and does not waddle so much as hurry — eXtension says Runners “stand upright like penguins” and “run rather than waddle”. The Livestock Conservancy traces them to ducks herded in India and Indonesia, driven out to rice paddies and fields by day “to glean scattered grain, weed seeds, snails, insects, larvae, small reptiles, and the like.” Strong layers by some counts — over 250 eggs a year from good strains, says the Conservancy, against 100–180 on Metzer Farms’ chart and 100–150 in the University of Kentucky’s table — and rarely still: the Conservancy calls them “the most active forager of all breeds”.

Khaki Campbell. The laying breed. Unshowy and light — the Livestock Conservancy calls it “a lightweight bird” of around 4–4.5 lb — with 165–240 eggs a year on Metzer Farms’ chart, the most of the six, 200–300 in the University of Kentucky’s table and an average of 250–340 by the Conservancy. It is not a calm bird: Metzer scores it 9.0 on its 1 (very calm) to 9 (more nervous) scale, and Kentucky says Campbells and Runners “tend to be nervous and flighty”. If eggs are the point, this is the usual answer.

Muscovy. The odd one out, genuinely. Muscovies are a separate species rather than a mallard descendant, and it shows everywhere: they take 35 days to hatch instead of 28 — which the hatch date calculator accounts for — they perch and roost in trees, they have bare red facial skin, and they are usually silent: Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology says the males “hiss and puff during courtship” and the females give “a quiet quack or croak when frightened”.

Call duck. Small and remarkably loud: the British Waterfowl Association calls it “the smallest breed of domestic duck, weighing less than a kilo”, and says the females “do have a very loud quack”. They were developed, the Association says, “to call down the wild Mallard to the great traps or decoys” of the UK Fenlands and the marshes of Holland, and it advises against keeping female Calls if you have close neighbours.

Cayuga. Black at a glance, with what the Livestock Conservancy calls “an iridescent green/blue/purple sheen” in sunlight. The Conservancy describes it as calm, quiet and one of the hardiest of the domestic ducks; Metzer Farms, though, scores its temperament 8.8 on its 1 (very calm) to 9 (more nervous) scale.

What the breeds share, and where the differences stop

Every breed in this quiz except Muscovy descends from the wild Mallard. Their eggs take about 28 days to hatch, says the Cornell Duck Research Laboratory — though Metzer Farms gives 28.5–29 days for Runners — and the breeds can interbreed and produce fertile offspring.

The RSPCA’s welfare standards, written for common meat-duck breeds and excluding Muscovies, do not vary by breed name: indoors the limit is a stocking density of 17 kg per square metre, which allows fewer heavy birds than light ones on the same floor, and outdoors it is a flat minimum of 2.5 m² of range per bird on good pasture. Feeding is not identical, though: Metzer Farms charts feed intake by breed and says intake will “vary according to temperature, exercise, and genetics”. How long ducks live covers what breed and care each contribute.

Where breed genuinely matters: laying rate, adult size, noise, temperament, whether the bird flies, which sexing signs apply, incubation length and feed intake. Everything else is mostly the same duck in different colours.

The six side by side

A quick comparison, because the differences that matter when you are choosing are not the ones the quiz asks about.

Two columns deserve a warning. Noise is not evenly distributed: a Call duck and a Muscovy are at opposite ends of a very wide range. And in every mallard-derived breed the loud, clear quack belongs to the female; drakes are quieter and hoarser. Why ducks quack explains what those calls are for.

Eggs is a comparison, not a promise. The sources disagree widely for the same breed — the Livestock Conservancy gives the Khaki Campbell an average of 250–340 eggs a year against Metzer Farms’ 165–240 — and light matters as well as breed: Metzer’s figures run from no artificial light at the lower end to 17 hours of light at the upper. When ducks start laying covers what actually drives it.

Choosing between them, honestly

If the quiz gave you a Call duck and you live in a terraced house, the quiz was wrong and your neighbours would agree.

Three questions settle most of it. How much noise can your situation absorb? Muscovy and Cayuga at the quiet end — Cornell calls Muscovies “usually silent”, and the Livestock Conservancy calls the Cayuga a quiet breed good for urban or suburban settings. Call duck at the other, where the British Waterfowl Association advises against keeping females if you have close neighbours.

How much ground do you have? The Livestock Conservancy says centuries of herding selected Runners as good walkers and foragers, and that they prefer a large space; it says Khaki Campbells “need plenty of space to graze and forage”. The housing and space calculator turns that into an actual number for the flock size you are considering.

Are you keeping them for eggs, or for company? Both is a perfectly good answer, but it changes the shortlist. Khaki Campbell if eggs are the point, with the Runner close behind on the Livestock Conservancy’s figures; for a calm bird, the Muscovy, which Metzer Farms scores 1.0, the calm end of its 1 to 9 scale, or the Cayuga, which the Livestock Conservancy calls docile and calm; Muscovy if you want something genuinely different and do not mind that it will roost somewhere you did not intend.

What should not drive the decision is a worry that one breed is far harder to keep than another: much of their care is shared. The RSPCA’s space figures do not vary by breed name, though feed intake does vary by breed (Metzer Farms). Whatever the plumage, you are keeping a duck.

If the quiz has made you want one

Reasonable, and this is the moment to be practical about it rather than a month after they arrive.

Work out the space first — the housing and space calculator gives you the house, run, feeder and water figures for the number of birds you are thinking about. Read whether ducks need a pond before you dig anything, because the honest answer will save you the digging. And common duck health problems is the article to have read before you need it rather than after.

If you are starting from eggs rather than birds, start at the hatch date calculator instead. And when the bird arrives and has no name, the name generator is two clicks away.