I think Liam is correct that they will "adopt" other family's ducklings. I have seen a couple of pairs with 20+ ducklings in a few places. Most sources online cite 8-11 as a "usual" clutch size, so I would think 20 would not be from just 1 pair as it seems excessively large. Either way, most often they have far fewer than 16 Ducklings, usually 5-10 in my experience (often quite a few will disappear throughout the course of parenting).
Describe how you intend to use these images and/or audio files and your request will be sent to the author for consideration.
Your request has been successfully submitted to the author for consideration.
2,153,636 sightings of 19,948 species in 6,489 locations from 11,437 contributors
CCA 3.0 | privacy
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of this land and acknowledge their continuing connection to their culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present.