Indian Runner Duck – IMS Photography

Indian Runner duck, Beamish Museum, England

Indian Runners or Runner ducks are a breed of Anas platyrhynchos domesticus, the domestic duck. They stand erect like penguins and, rather than waddling or flying, they run. They were bred on the Indonesian islands of Lombok, Java and Bali. Egg production has been measured at over 173 eggs per year; much higher claims have been made without reliable evidence. The breed arrived in the Western world in the 19th century; they have since been bred to have a wide variety of colours.

Indian Runner ducks vary in weight between 1.4 and 2.3 kg (3.1 and 5.1 lb). Their height (from crown to tail tip) ranges from 50 cm (20 in) in small females to about 76 cm (30 in) in the taller males. The erect carriage is a result of a pelvic girdle that is closer to the tail than other breeds of domestic duck. This structural feature allows the birds to walk or run, rather than waddle, as seen with other duck breeds; they do not fly.

Indian Runner ducks have a long, wedge-shaped head. The bill blends into the head smoothly being as straight as possible from bean to the back of the skull. The head is shallower than is seen with most other breeds of duck. This effect gives a racy appearance, a breed trait. Eye placement is high on the head. Indian Runners have long, slender necks that smoothly transition into the body. The body is long, slim but round in appearance.

The breed is known for its high egg production, but estimates of this vary widely. The Livestock Conservancy give a figure of “over 250 eggs” per year without supporting evidence. Claims of as many as 300 eggs per year were published by American breeders for individual ducks in 1912–1914. Ioan Custura and colleagues in 2021 observed breeding birds at the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Bucharest, stating that egg production was on average 173.74 eggs per bird in Indian Runners, intermediate between their measurements of 189.77 for Khaki Campbells and 120.42 for “Peking ducks”.

Image details
Date: 2 October 2022
Camera body: Nikon D50
Lens: Tamron 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.0-5.6
Focal Length: 250mm
Aperture: ƒ/5.3
Shutter Speed: 1/1,000s
ISO: 400
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International