Of the two species of domesticated anatines, the Muscovy duck (Cairina moschata) is larger, less vocal, and characterized by a fleshy protuberance on the head of the male. It is a duck of tropical American origin, whose wild ancestors nested in trees, whereas the common duck (Anas platyrhynchos) was domesticated in the Old World from the ground-dwelling mallard. The two species can mate and produce offspring, but such offspring cannot reproduce.

The Muscovy duck is misnamed, for it never had any special association with Moscow. Most likely the name is the result of a garbled corruption of canard musqué (“musk duck”); however, this French term is not an accurate descriptor either. Depending on area, various Spanish names are used for the duck in Latin America. Among these are pato criollo (“native duck”), pato real (“royal duck”), pato almisclado (“musk duck”), pato machacón (“insistent duck”), and pato perulero (“Peru duck”). In Brazilian Portuguese, it is most commonly called pato do mato (“forest duck”). Indigenous names for this bird indicate its New World origin, including ñuñuma in Quechua, sumne in Chibcha, and tlalalacatl in the Nahuatl language of Mexico.

Before the European conquest of the Americas, the bird’s apparent distribution extended from north central Mexico to the Rio de la Plata in Argentina (Donkin 1989). It was and still is kept in a wide range of environments, which include the islands of the Caribbean, deserts, humid tropics, temperate plains, and the high elevations of the Andes. Although several colonial chronicles refer to C. moschata, such sources do not indicate that these domesticated birds were particularly important to household economies. In Mexico, the turkey has had greater importance in the houseyard. In South America, the Muscovy had no poultry competitors until the Spaniards and Portuguese brought chickens, which – because of their greater egg-laying capacity – were widely adopted.