duckpond

You've found a duck
in trouble.

Most ducks that look like they need help do not. Before anything else, spend two minutes deciding whether this is actually an emergency.

The short version: don't chase it. Phone a wildlife rescue before you catch it. If you do catch it, a dark ventilated cardboard box with a towel in the bottom — no food, no water, no first aid.

First: it probably doesn't need you

A duckling on its own

The mother is very often within a few metres and out of sight. Watch from a distance for twenty minutes before doing anything at all.

A duck that cannot fly in mid-summer

Ducks moult all their flight feathers at once and spend a few weeks flightless every year. A grounded duck in July is usually just moulting.

A duck sitting still for a long time

Resting, sunning and preening all look like collapse from a distance. A duck in trouble usually has its eyes closed, its head down, and does not react as you approach.

A duck on a nest somewhere ridiculous

Car parks, roof terraces, flowerbeds. Leave her. If the ducklings will be trapped when they hatch, that is the thing to call about, in advance.

It does need help if

  • Obvious injury — bleeding, a hanging wing, a dangling leg.
  • Fishing line, hooks, netting or plastic wrapped around it.
  • It does not move away as you get close.
  • It is being attacked, by a dog or by other birds.
  • It is covered in oil or anything else it should not be.
  • Several birds on the same water are sick or dead — that one is a different call, see below.

What to do, in order

  1. Don't chase it. A chase costs the bird more than the injury often does, and a duck that makes it to open water cannot be helped by anyone. If it gets away from you, stop and phone for advice instead.
  2. Phone first if you can. A wildlife rescue will tell you whether to catch it at all, and they would much rather advise you before you have a duck in a box than after.
  3. Contain it in a cardboard box. Throw a towel over the bird, lift it with both wings held gently against its body, and put it in a ventilated cardboard box with a towel in the bottom. Not a cage — it will damage its feathers.
  4. Dark, quiet, warm, and closed. Somewhere indoors, away from pets, children, and noise. Darkness is the single most effective thing you can do for a bird's stress level.
  5. No food and no water. Do not try to make it eat or drink. A stressed or injured bird can inhale water, and the wrong food makes treatment harder. This part feels unkind and is correct.
  6. Don't treat the injury. No antiseptic, no bandages, no pulling at embedded hooks or line, no cutting anything close to the skin. Cut trailing line only if it is snagged on something and the bird is trapped.
  7. Get it to someone qualified, today. A wildlife hospital, a wildlife rehabilitator, or a vet. In most countries vets will see wildlife without charging the finder.

Several sick or dead birds on the same water is a different situation. If you find several sick or dead waterfowl on the same water, do not handle them. Avian influenza is present in wild birds in much of the world, and most countries ask you to report groups of dead wild birds to an agriculture or environment department. Look up the reporting route for your country, keep dogs away, and if you keep poultry yourself, do not go near your own birds afterwards.

A farmyard duck on a park pond

That one has been dumped, not injured

A white farmyard duck, a Muscovy, or an Indian Runner on a public pond has almost certainly been dumped there. It is not wildlife, it usually cannot fly, and it will not survive the winter. That is a case for a poultry rescue, a farm sanctuary or a smallholder rather than a wildlife hospital, and it is worth making the call — these birds are rehomeable.

Why this keeps happening

Who to call

United Kingdom

RSPCA in England and Wales, Scottish SPCA in Scotland, USPCA in Northern Ireland. The RSPB does not run a rescue service. Local independent wildlife hospitals are often faster than any of them.

Ireland

The ISPCA, or a local wildlife rehabilitator.

United States and Canada

Search for a licensed wildlife rehabilitator in your state or province — it is a licensed role, and directories exist for both countries. Animal control is the fallback.

Anywhere else

Search for “wildlife rescue” or “wildlife rehabilitator” with your town's name. Failing that, any veterinary practice will know who locally takes birds.

No phone numbers here, on purpose: they change, and a wrong number on this page would be worse than none. Search the organisation's name and you will have the right one in seconds.

These are safe first steps, not veterinary advice, and they do not replace phoning someone who does this for a living. Where the two disagree, do what the rescue tells you.