Pennypack Park’s mandarin duck dies
The rare and majestic mandarin duck, which captured bird lovers' attention when it made the park its home in November, has died. The cause was not immediately available.
A rare and majestic mandarin duck that captured bird lovers’ attention when it made Philadelphia’s Pennypack Park its home in November has died.
The Pennypack Environmental Center made the announcement Tuesday afternoon without getting into specifics.
“Please respect the wildlife in the park when you visit,” read the post on Facebook, which led some followers to speculate the duck had died in an unsavory manner.
Pennypack Environmental Center was not immediately available for comment.
Though we may not know how the handsome duck died, we have some clues as to how it spent its final weeks.
With earliest sightings reported in late November, the mandarin duck spent its days gliding its layers of black, white, and various shades of orange plumage through a frog pond behind the environmental center.
Mandarin ducks are native to East Asia, though they’ve been introduced to the United States through breeding and developed feral populations in parts of California and North Carolina after escaping.
Still, the waterfowl remains rare enough that when one graces the East Coast, it immediately attracts curious birders, Instagrammers, and plenty of news coverage — once called the “Kim Kardashian of ducks” in the New York Times.
Audubon Society’s Damien Ruffner, program manager at the Discovery Center, said that on top of its good looks, the duck’s tendency to stay in one place makes it a popular find even for non-birders. Its rarity also plays into the hype.
“People have not seen this bird around, [they might think] ‘this might be my only chance to go see this bird,’” said Ruffner.
He said the ducks have been spotted about once a year on the East Coast, presumed to have been abandoned by owners who kept them as pets. A 2019 sighting at Delco’s Ridley Park drew just as many fans and coverage.
Of course, at first glance, the waterbirds can’t help but be appreciated for their beauty, but they also have a soft side that makes them endearing to hopeless romantics.
The male mandarin duck helps its partner raise and protect their offspring.
We don’t know if the Pennypack mandarin duck ever experienced fatherhood. We don’t know about the duck’s life before Pennypack at all, except that like its predecessors on the East Coast, it was probably left behind by an owner.
In Philadelphia, the duck had only a wood duck friend to speak of, unless you count the herds of people who came to photograph and admire it from afar. The duck’s fans took to Facebook to share some of the magazine-style photographs they took of the waterbird in its final weeks.