Birds of a Feather

Features July/August 2025

Intriguing rock art in the Four Corners reveals how the Basketmaker people drew inspiration from ducks 1,500 years ago
Courtesy John Pitts
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A rock art panel in southeastern Utah dating to the first millennium a.d. was made by the Basketmaker people. The panel depicts human-duck hybrid figures (center), as well as flute players, a duck, and a variety of circular symbols.

You don’t have to be a birder to recognize a duck call. The courtship whistles, odd cackles, and persistent quacking of ducks are some of the natural world’s most familiar sounds. In 2024, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that the North American po

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