Mallard

Here's a Mallard swimming through shallow water. I've talked about Mallards before, including their willingness to hybridize with relatives and that most domesticated ducks are domesticated Mallards. And I've also mentioned that only the female Mallards make the classic quacking vocalization; you can compare their sounds here. Us humans try to represent the male's calls as "wrack" or "kwek" [1][2].

May 25, 2023 at Duke Farms
Photo 292816482, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

[1] You can try all the quacking, wracking, and kwekking you want, but you're probably not going to convince a Mallard that you speak their language. (I'm also skeptical that honking at them will fool them into thinking you're a goose either.)

[2] You might notice that "wrack" rhymes with "quack" while "kwek" is basically "quack" with a different vowel. It's easy to believe these similar-but-distinct sounds are coming from the same species.

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