Surely is it not easier for them to kick about on the shore.
In: Biology
Ducks feed on aquatic life, fish, aquatic plants. Plus being away from land means you’re out of reach from land based predators like coyotes and bobcats. Even if a coyote ran into the shallow water, the duck will have swam away or flown away.before it even got close
Open water is an environmental niche that they filled. There is readily available food in the form of aquatic weeds, insects, and small fish. Obviously there is water available. They’re also protected from many predators. There aren’t many places to hide [above water] to sneak up on them if they’re in the middle of the lake. And that’s assuming the predator is willing to swim after them at all, or capable of catching them if the predator does (a duck could pretty easily out-swim a wolf or bobcat).
The water also serves as a landmark for them to stay together when they migrate. While migrating, they know that the lakes are, for the most part, going to have the same resources so they know it’s a safe place to land. All of the ones in the same flock are looking at the same lake (or series of lakes) so they can land together, and see each other when they take off again. And they have plenty of open space to take off – like clearing land around an airport runway.
So why don’t all birds live on or around water? There are still predators like alligators, snapping turtles, and snakes; and, since their adaptations to water (like webbed feet) make it hard for them to perch in trees, if they are *not* in the water they are vulnerable to land-based predators if they sneak up on them. A wolf might not swim well enough to catch them, but it doesn’t have to if it catches them on land. A hawk never has to worry about a wolf or alligator because wolves and alligators don’t climb trees ^^^[mostly](https://cdnph.upi.com/svc/sv/i/4991467896675/2016/1/14678971595992/Florida-man-spots-tree-climbing-alligator-lounging-on-a-branch.jpg) .
Adaptations for eating the food available around water – like a flat beak – make it difficult or impossible to eat food sources available to other birds, like seeds or rodents. Being able to float requires specialization like oily, water-repellent feathers and a fatty, buoyant butt. That’s fine for ducks, since they also don’t have the wings for the kind of speed needed to catch prey like rodents and they need fatty deposits to store energy for long migrations, but useless or detrimental to birds adapted to other lifestyles. Those same adaptations (like webbed feet) make it harder for ducks to waddle along the shore so they are much safer in the water anyway. For birds that spend more time on land, that would not be beneficial.
All of this means that ducks are not in competition with any of the birds *not* adapted to life on the water. They *do* compete with water birds like geese and swans, but that’s not all that much competition. If there is an open niche, *something* is going to fill it because they’re going to be pushed by competition or a lack of other resources. The ancestors of ducks (and geese and swans) were the ones that filled the niche.
TL;DR: Ducks adapted to life on and around water, because it’s there and they could. Those adaptations make them kinda bad at living elsewhere. Other birds adapted to living elsewhere, which makes them bad at living on and around water.
They can get fish from under the surface. Maybe some other sources of food but mainly fish.
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