Author Mark Essig was on his short flight from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Asheville when he spotted an unusual looking passenger walking down the aisle.
My seatmate, CLT➡️AVL, is this handsome duck named Daniel. His gentle quacking eases the sadness of leaving #SFA16.
Essig was seated just behind Daniel, an emotional support duck who was accompanying his owner on the flight.
Here is Daniel The Emotional Support Duck in all his red-shoed glory.
"He was wearing little red booties," Essig told BuzzFeed News, "I assume to protect the delicate webbing of his feet, though I didn't ask why."
Daniel the duck also wore a Captain America diaper, which Essig says the owner told him was Daniel's favourite.
@mark_essig he is an Indian Runner (an Indonesian breed), a certified emotional support duck, 4 years old, wears a… https://t.co/Bb3M7sCm15
"His human said he had several diapers, but always indicated (how I'm not sure) that he preferred to wear the Captain America one," said Essig.
Daniel is four-years-old and was bought by his owner at a yard sale. Essig said his owner "kissed him on the beak several times" and held his beak gently when he quacked a lot during the flight.
Here is a 3-second video of Daniel the emotional support duck. His human says, 'and wagging? That's happy.'
Most captivating is this shot Essig managed to get of Daniel looking out the plane's window, something he said the duck did for a lot of the flight.
Daniel, the duck on my flight, likes to look at the clouds.
"Was he dreaming of flying through the clouds under his own strength?" pondered Essig.
"His owner told me he couldn't fly, and Wikipedia tells me that Indian Runner ducks can't fly," said Essig. "But does his tiny brain contain some pre-domestication ancestral memory of flight?"
