Call duck

Call duck

Conservation status	FAO (2007): not at risk [1] : 141  DAD-IS (2022): at risk [2] SZH (2022): threatened [3]
Other names	Call Duck
Country of origin	Netherlands
Distribution	Ireland Netherlands United Kingdom [2]
Use	ornament showing
Traits
Weight	Male: 800–900 g Female: 700–800 g
Colour	about twenty recognised colours [4] [5]
Classification
APA	bantam duck [6] : 18
EE	yes [7]
PCGB	bantam and call ducks [8]
duck Anas platyrhynchos domesticus

At a show

The Call is a historic breed of small domestic duck. ^{[9] [10] [11]} It is believed to have originated in the Netherlands, where the earliest descriptions and depictions of it date from the seventeenth century. It is similar in appearance to some other breeds of duck, but is much smaller, with a round head and very short bill. Ducks – but not drakes – are very loquacious and noisy, with a piercing high-pitched call that can be heard from far away and from which the name derives. ^{[12] : 88  [13] [14] : 157}

The Call was in the past used as a decoy duck to attract wild ducks into traps.

History

Adult drake

The use of decoy ducks to attract wild ducks into traps in the Dutch Republic is documented from the seventeenth century: the naturalist Francis Willughby, who travelled in Europe in the 1660s, describes the techniques as used in Holland; ^[8] small ducks resembling the modern Call appear in the paintings of the animalier painter Melchior Hondecoeter from about the same period. ^[8]

The Call was present in the British Isles by the mid-nineteenth century; an early description is that of James Joseph Nolan, published in Dublin in 1850. ^{[14] : 157} It was among the four breeds of duck included in the first poultry standard – the Standard of Excellence of William Bernhardt Tegetmeier – in 1865. ^{[15] : 54}

In the twenty-first century it is an endangered breed. In 2017 the Stichting Zeldzame Huisdierrassen  [ nl ] classified it as bedreigd ('endangered'), based on a population of 750 ducks and 400 drakes in the hands of about 100 breeders. ^[3] In 2026 its conservation status was listed in DAD-IS as "at risk/endangered'. ^[16]

Characteristics

The Call is small, with an average weight of approximately 800 g; drakes may weigh up to 100 g more, and ducks up to 100 g less. ^[4]

In the Netherlands about twenty colours are recognised; ^[4] about the same number are recognised by the British Waterfowl Association and the Poultry Club of Great Britain in the United Kingdom. ^{[5] [17] : 410  [a]} The Entente Européenne recognises nineteen colours, and lists a further eleven unrecognised ones. ^[7] In the United States the grey and white varieties were included in the first Standard of Perfection of the American Poultry Association in 1874; six other colours were added between 1977 and 2007. ^[6]

Australian Call Duck

In the second edition of the Australian Poultry Standards , published in 2011, the Australian Call Duck is described as a separate breed from the Call Duck of Europe, with a different range of plumage colours and a rather larger body size. It has been suggested that it developed independently in South Australia as a dwarf mutation in the domestic mallard. ^{[18] : 22  [19]}

Notes

1. These include: abacot, Appleyard, apricot, apricot Appleyard (butterscotch), apricot silver, bibbed, black, blue fawn, blue silver, chocolate, chocolate mallard, chocolate silver, dark silver, dusky mallard, khaki (dusky chocolate mallard), magpie, mallard, pied, silver, white and yellow belly. ^{[17] : 410}

References

1. Barbara Rischkowsky, Dafydd Pilling (editors) (2007). List of breeds documented in the Global Databank for Animal Genetic Resources, annex to The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Rome: Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. ISBN   9789251057629. Archived 23 June 2020.
2. Transboundary breed: Call. Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed August 2022.
3. Hollandse Kwaker (in Dutch). Wageningen: Stichting Zeldzame Huisdierrassen. Archived 20 August 2017.
4. Jan van Pieterson (August 2012). De Kwaker (in Dutch). European Poultry Society. Archived 25 May 2016.
5. Call ducks. British Waterfowl Association. Accessed August 2022.
6. APA Recognized Breeds and Varieties: As of January 1, 2012. American Poultry Association. Archived 4 November 2017.
7. Liste des races et variétés homologuée dans les pays EE (28.04.2013). Entente Européenne d’Aviculture et de Cuniculture. Archived 16 June 2013.
8. Ducks. Poultry Club of Great Britain. Archived 9 November 2018.
9. Dave Holderread (2001). Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks. North Adams, Massachusetts: Storey Publishing. ISBN   158017258X.
10. Chris Ashton, Mike Ashton (2001). The Domestic Duck. Ramsbury, Marlborough: The Crowood Press. ISBN   9781847979704.
11. Victoria Roberts (2008). British Poultry Standards: complete specifications and judging points of all standardized breeds and varieties of poultry as compiled by the specialist breed clubs and recognised by the Poultry Club of Great Britain, sixth edition. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN   9781405156424.
12. Chris Ashton, Mike Ashton (2009). Keeping Ducks and Geese. Cincinnati, Ohio: David & Charles. ISBN   9780715331576.
13. Dave Holderread (2011). Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks, second edition. North Adams, Massachusetts: Storey Publishing. ISBN   9781603427456.
14. James Joseph Nolan (1850). Ornamental, Aquatic, and Domestic Fowl, and Game Birds: Their Importation, Breeding, Rearing, and General Management. Dublin: The Author.
15. William Bernhardt Tegetmeier (editor) (1865). The Standard of Excellence in Exhibition Poultry, authorized by the Poultry Club. London: Groombridge and Sons, for the Poultry Club.
16. Breed data sheet: Hollandse kwaker / Netherlands (Kingdom of the) (Duck (domestic)). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed February 2026.
17. J. Ian H. Allonby, Philippe B. Wilson (editors) (2018). British Poultry Standards: complete specifications and judging points of all standardized breeds and varieties of poultry as compiled by the specialist breed clubs and recognised by the Poultry Club of Great Britain, seventh edition. Chichester; Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley Blackwell. ISBN   9781119509141.
18. Hamish Russell (June–July 2010). The Australian Call Duck. Australasian Poultry. 21 (2): 22–23.
19. [Victorian Poultry Fanciers Association] (2011 [1998]). Australian Poultry Standards, second edition. Ballarat, Victoria: Victorian Poultry Fanciers Association Limited. ISBN   9781921488238.