A Day in the Life of a Congress Park Duck

It's the ducks' world and we're all just living in it.

The ducks in Congress Park are a mix of wild mallards and domestic ducks that people have had as pets and released. Those species have mated, so now many of the ducks are hybrids of the two. (Photography by Nate Seitelman)

Sure, Saratoga’s a horse town. The horses that come here every summer drive the majority of the tourism the city sees, the local college has a Thoroughbred for a mascot, and the Saratoga Springs police officers even ride around downtown on horses. But there’s another (slightly less official) official animal of the Spa City.

The Congress Park duck.

Congress Park ducks featured on the 2023 Chowderfest logo and Bailey’s merchandise.

Part mallard, part domestic duck, the Congress Park duck (Congress Parkus Duckus, for all you citizen scientists) has become a fixture of Saratoga Springs society for its bold personality, affinity for stopping traffic, and tendency to show up in places it shouldn’t be. The flock boasts its own Twitter page—or I guess we’re calling it X now—and has landed on Saratoga merchandise like Hud Armstrong’s annual Chowderfest T-shirts and Bailey’s sweatshirts.

The infamous Panda social distancing near The Adelphi; an image posted to the What’s Going on Saratoga? Facebook page during the spring of 2021, when conversations were dominated by talk of Owen Wilson, Chick-fil-A and Panda.

There’s even an avian A-lister that has emerged from the flock—Panda, a recognizable black-and-white splattered female who gained notoriety on the What’s Going On Saratoga? Facebook page during the page’s Owen Wilson/Chick-fil-A era. “Panda can have whatever she wants,” someone commented on our Instagram photo of her drinking from a dog bowl on Broadway in May 2021. “That duck certainly has a taste for the finer things,” What’s Going On Saratoga? administrator Adam Israel commented on a photo of her at The Adelphi that same spring. “Social distancing duck” someone else commented on a different photo of her alone at The Adelphi. (A deep dive into Panda lore reveals that she was named by the 4-year-old daughter of a woman who nursed her back to health after she was hit by a car.)

Congress Park ducks at Putnam Place and Wasabi.

While I’ve had plenty of encounters with the ducks of Congress Park over the years, I was interested to know what they’re up to when they’re not crossing the street in front of my car when I’m in a hurry. So I dedicated this week to the study of Congress Parkus Duckus. I spent record amounts of time standing creepily among the families waiting for the Congress Park carousel, stepped in a lifetime’s worth of duck poop, and even made a few friends along the way (keep reading to meet Marshall, the self-proclaimed 6-year-old duck expert).

Here, Saratoga, is what a day in the life of a Congress Park duck looks like: