Super Mommy Duck!

[Chlidonias]

A lady merganser has been photographed in America with 76 ducklings in tow. That's seventy-six in case anyone thought it was a typo.

Photo on the following link.

Extreme parenting: Photographer snaps super-mum hen with 76 ducklings

 

[Kakapo]

I guess many of the ducklings are "adopted" . 76 eggs can't develope at same time in a single duck body... Some pochards/scaups practice the cleptoparasitism - some females put eggs in nest of other females of the same or different species - and hence the number of chicks can be much bigger. Do anybody know if mergansers do the same?

 

[FBBird]

I guess many of the ducklings are "adopted" . 76 eggs can't develope at same time in a single duck body... Some pochards/scaups practice the cleptoparasitism - some females put eggs in nest of other females of the same or different species - and hence the number of chicks can be much bigger. Do anybody know if mergansers do the same?

I knew a Hooded Merganser female who laid all her eggs in Mandarin Duck nests.

 

[Zorro]

It looks like a Grebe to me not a duck

 

[Daktari JG]

Its 100% a merganser
I wonder how many if any will fledge.
That seems like a lunch wagon.

 

[Birdlover]

In case anyone is wondering it is a female Common Merganser.

 

[jayjds2]

Imagine the cost of duck college for her