My major professor in graduate school told me about a good friend of his that collected beer bottles with birds’ pictures on them. We were actually admiring the label of the beer he was consuming after a long day mist-netting birds in the rainforests of Panama… but that’s an entirely different blog! Needless to say, I thought it was a neat idea…

I was reminded of that story when I heard about a certain winery here in Napa that has put birds on its labels ever since production began. The winery is Paraduxx, and the theme for each label is fittingly “a pair of ducks” (Ha! ...get it?). I don’t want to give the impression that I am in some way advertising for this winery, in all honesty I haven’t even tried the wine.

Each year, the artist is asked to use his or her traditional medium to depict a pair of ducks that are native to the Pacific Flyway. Paraduxx’s 2003 vintage features a twosome of Mallards. Semi-lackluster, sure, but a very important ingredient to the menagerie of waterfowl that cruise this fair state. They are very graceful birds, and so distinctive! You must admit, even a commonplace Mallard is simply breathtaking with the sun illuminating the characteristic green head. The up-turned middle tail feathers always elicit a smile from me.

A neat fact about these beauties is they are the ancestor of nearly all domestic duck breeds (except the Muscovy Duck, of course)! Additionally, they one of the rare examples of both Allen's Rule and Bergmann's Rule in birds. Let me explain. Bergmann's Rule states that as latitude increases (and thus temperature decreases) animals have larger body masses than related ones from warmer climates; this rule has numerous examples in birds. Allen's Rule is that in polar animals, appendages like ears tend to be smaller to minimize heat loss, and larger in tropical and desert equivalents to facilitate heat diffusion. Examples of this rule in birds are rare, as they lack ears. They do, however, have bills which are well supplied with blood vessels and thus vulnerable to cold. Since Mallards are so widespread, we can see that the birds living in northern climates are larger, stockier, and have shorter bills than their southern counterparts.

So you see, even ordinary birds can be a great opportunity to learn something new!

One last snippet… Paraduxx is owned by the Duckhorn Wine Company who currently runs three wineries: Duckhorn Vineyards, Paraduxx and Goldeneye (who has a sister label called Migration). Duckhorn Vineyards even has creative names for their wines… like a Bordeaux called “Decoy.” Gotta love the bird references!