The Mandarin Duck

This is really a wonderful card Sveta. And I must thank you for the wonderful stamps on the envelope. 

Now lets talk about this great duck. Boldly colored and with unusual feather shapes, the drake mandarin duck is widely considered to be the most beautiful duck in the world. In Chinese culture, a pair of these birds symbolizes love, martial fidelity and relationship respect, all admirable qualities that these ducks demonstrate during the mating season as they work together to raise their ducklings.

These perching ducks prefer wooded habitat near inland lakes and rivers, typically with deciduous trees and brushy cover for adequate shelter. Mandarin ducks are native to eastern Asia and can be found year-round in Japan and Taiwan, with their summer range extending to include eastern Russia and Mongolia. In winter, migratory populations of mandarin ducks can be found in eastern China.

The Mandarin ducks are the most popular, well known and widely used traditional feng shui cure for love. Note the word traditional, or classical feng shui, which means that a cure is based on culturally specific images, symbols and overall historical use.

Does that mean that you should use the Mandarin ducks as a feng shui cure if you are looking to attract a love partner? It depends on you. The best answer is this: "Choose the Mandarin ducks as a feng shui cure to attract love only if you genuinely, completely and absolutely feel the energy of love and devotion when you look at them."

The adult male is a striking and unmistakable bird. It has a red bill, large white crescent above the eye and reddish face and "whiskers". The breast is purple with two vertical white bars, and the flanks ruddy, with two orange "sails" at the back. The female is similar to female Wood Duck, with a white eye-ring and stripe running back from the eye, but is paler below, has a small white flank stripe, and a pale tip to its bill. The Mandarin ducklings are almost identical in look to Wood ducklings, and appear very similar to Mallard ducklings. The ducklings can be distinguished from Mallard ducklings because the eye-stripe of Mandarin ducklings (and Wood ducklings) stops at the eye, while in Mallard ducklings it reaches all the way to the bill.