Wikipedia article of the day for August 6, 2026

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 6, 2026 is Big Duck.
The Big Duck is a 20-foot-tall (6.1 m) ferrocement building in the shape of a duck, and a canonical example of novelty architecture. Built in 1931 in Riverhead, New York, it was moved several times to locations on eastern Long Island, ending up in Flanders in 2007. This structure inspired the word duck as a common term in academic literature used to refer to buildings shaped like everyday objects or describe excessive ornamentation used in graphical presentations of data. It was built by duck farmer Martin Maurer for use as a shop to sell ducks and duck eggs. This was during a period when duck farming was a growing industry on eastern Long Island and novelty architecture was on the rise due to the increasing popularity of automobiles. It was added to both the National Register of Historic Places and the New York State Register of Historic Places in 1997, and is a principal building on the Big Duck Ranch, which was listed on both registers in 2008.