Best Motion Duck Decoy [2024 Review]

Ducks are brilliant birds and will avoid your spread when they feel uncomfortable. A skein of flying ducks is naturally attracted to a spread of duck decoys, making ripples, splashes, and lots of natural movement. To have a successful spread that will attract ducks will require you to have the best motion duck decoys and a great strategy.

My Top Motion Duck Decoys

Realistic-looking duck decoys offer much higher chances of successfully attracting and finishing ducks on your spread. Most waterfowl hunters will tell you that it is essential to find the right equipment that fits your hunting style and needs. I have arrayed the most effective motion duck decoys that you can currently find on the market.

Motion Duck Decoy: MOJO Elite Series King Mallard Decoy

The King Mallard comes in a pack of two Drake Decoys that rank as the best motion duck decoys because of their remarkable resemblance to an actual duck. The decoy mallard has painted accurately with true-to-life feather detail that fools most ducks into sticking around your bait.

The King Mallard comes with magnetically attached wings, so you can easily remove them if you need to replace them. The wings music a duck in low flight.

Unlike the Mojo Floater Spinning Wing Duck Decoy, this duck decoy comes with a support pole that may hinder its ability to look as natural as possible to ducks waddling in the spread. Its three-part support pole holds the decoy above the water surface to make it look like a landing duck from above.

This decoy has a protective design where the battery holding, transmission, and motor components are housed in a solid housing that connects to the pole where the duck stands and further to the wings. Its design, however, makes the duck decoy appear big and bulky to carry.

Pros

• The King Mallard is durable because of its weatherproof design that retains the vibrant color of your decoy’s feathers for multiple seasons
• This decoy comes with a remote control that allows you to turn your decoy on or off for better realism and extend the decoy’s battery life during your hunting session, just like in the Avian X Powerflight motion duck decoy

Cons

• This large decoy can scare off ducks as they land and therefore interfere with finishing ducks because of the movement of their enormous wings
• The pole support system in this duck decoy poses the risk of losing the functionality of your lure if the support pole breaks

Motion Duck Decoy for Extended Battery Life: Avian-X PowerFlight Mallard Decoy

The Avian-X’s Powerflight Mallard Decoy strives to use innovative and high-quality gear to look just like real birds flying overhead. This duck decoy comes with a remote, a rechargeable battery, and a heavy-duty marsh stake.

Like the King Mallard above, this duck decoy features weather-resistant housing that makes it effective even in harsh wind conditions by protecting vital interior components. The recharging port is located on the exterior, making recharging easy and straightforward to carry out.

With this decoy, you get to save up on buying a pack of batteries now and then to keep your decoy running. This motion duck decoy saves the environment by eliminating the need for AA batteries that are not biodegradable.

Pros

• It has a long battery life of up to 16 hours of continuous use with its lithium-ion battery.
• The Avian X Mallard Decoy has the option of switching to optionally use a 6-volt lead battery in between charges to extend your periods of use.

Cons

• Unlike the King Mallard, where fine precision is upheld to make the decoy’s coat realistic, the Avian X Mllard Decoy doesn’t put as much consideration into eliminating plastic shine on their decoys.
• The support pole in this decoy may make it not seem as natural as the Mojo Floater Spinning Wing Duck Decoy below.

Motion Duck Decoy for Stealth: MOJO Elite Series Duck Decoy

The Mojo Floater Spinning Wing Duck Decoy is equipped with convenient gear, making this duck decoy an excellent option for efficiently finishing ducks.

Instead of being on a pole like the Mojo Elite spinning Wing Duck Decoy, this floater duck decoy rests directly on top of a water-resistant floater that houses the movement generation parts of the bait.

This design makes this floater duck decoy have the closest resemblance to the natural behavior in water than most duck decoys. To most ducks, this decoy will easily pass the resemblance test, so ducks waddling in the water as well as ducks flying overhead feel comfort and ease in your spread.

The design and technology put into this decoy ensure it makes it faster and smoother while silencing the noise of the moving parts in its floater. The floater on this duck decoy is structured to have the decoy float and turn in a very realistic way.

This duck decoy offers flexibility with its ability to receive an eleven-inch stabilizing bar that will still allow the duck to remain stable and afloat in rough waters. The motors on the Mojo Floater Decoy run on four AA batteries in a snap-in battery housing.

Pros

• The Mojo Floater Spinning Wing Duck Decoy has user-friendly gear, as demonstrated with the floater, where you only have to snap it on or off the duck part with a simple half-turn.
• The Mojo Floater Spinning Wing Duck Decoy offers the advantage of not needing a support pole allowing the duck decoy to look more natural.
• The technology on the floater makes this decoy safe to be deployed in deeper water.

Cons

• The molded float on this duck decoy may not be as effective as the King Mallard in attracting ducks flying overhead because it doesn’t mimic a landing duck as much as it resembles a swimming duck.
• This duck decoy uses four AA batteries offering a shorter battery life, unlike the Avian X Mallard Duck Decoy.

Motion Duck Decoy for Less Wobble: MOJO Elite Series Spinning Wing Duck Decoy

This Elite Series Spinning Wing Duck Decoy from Mojo, designed to have the impression of a wood duck, is one of the sturdy duck decoys you ought to consider buying. This duck decoy has an innovative design that offers less wobble, ensuring the decoy’s wing spins are smooth and natural-looking.

The Mojo Elite Series Spinning Wing Duck Decoy fits skin with true-to-life feather detail and color for an ultra-realistic look similar to the King Mallard Duck Decoy. The gears in this decoy are designed to be smoother and quieter, making ducks unafraid while moving about your spread.

The pole supporting the decoy structure is durable and sturdy to minimize rattling that startles ducks. However, unlike the Mojo Floater Spinning Wing Duck Decoy, this decoy may not be suitable for deployment in deeper waters.

Pros

• The unique housing that holds the running motors and parts is structured with cam-lock technology to set up quickly.
• The housing can be cleaned and maintained easily for more extended service because the housing is easily removable.

Cons

• This decoy runs on four AA batteries that don’t provide extended battery life like rechargeable decoys.
• This decoy doesn’t come inclusive of batteries, so you’ll also have to purchase a pack of batteries.

Mid-Range Motion Duck Decoy: MOJO Elite Series Mini Mallard Spinning Wing Flexible Duck Decoy

If you’re looking for a mini-version of the King Mallard Duck Decoy that has some of its features, then the Mojo Mini Mallard may be your best pick. This decoy’s skin has great feather detail and accurate colors for a more realistic duck resemblance.

Its innovative, sturdy pole design makes it less wobbly while providing a solid structure for power transmission. The gear design in this decoy has the motor running smoothly without much unnatural noise.

Just like the Elite Series Spinning Wing Duck Decoy, this decoy is engineered with a smooth cam lock pole system that makes disassembly and assembly pretty quick. The Mojo Mini Mallard is designed with removable magnetic wings like the King Mallard for easy removal and attachment.

This motion duck decoy has a solid build where the component housing connects the motor and wings directly to the support pole making this decoy durable almost as much as the Avian X Duck Decoy.

Pros

• This Mojo Mini duck decoy is available in hen style and mallard style housing.
• This decoy has a drop-in battery holder to keep your batteries in a secure place away from moisture.

Cons

• The Mojo Mini Duck Decoy runs on four AA batteries giving it a shorter lifespan than the King Mallard.
• The small size of this decoy may be slightly shy to duck’s sight and may also not be suitable for exploitation in deeper waters.

Features to Consider for Motion Duck Decoys

Great duck hunters know that there are different duck decoys for various purposes. Some motion duck decoys put ducks at ease as they circle your spread, while other decoys suffice to attract ducks from far. Understanding the difference can help you be more strategic and creative when choosing motion duck decoys.

Motion Concepts In Duck Decoys

Motion duck decoys are divided into two categories because they can either be manufactured to produce long-range strobe effects or simple motions.

• The long-range strobe effect is the flash a spinning-wing decoy generates by turning a wing at a certain minimum speed. This flash appears like the natural movement of duck wings.
• Simple motions are the movement of decoys in water, creating ripples and splashes to imitate a duck’s activities in the water. Their action, however, does not produce the strobe or flash.

If motion duck decoys were duck calls, strobe-effect motion duck decoys would be the highball, and simple motion duck decoys would be the lonesome hen.

Like the highball duck call, the strobe-effect motion decoys effectively attract ducks from far away. However, strobe movements in motion duck decoys could flare (scare away) ducks that have been attracted close enough to the spread and are about to land.

Simple motion duck decoys mimic the lonesome hen call in their subtlety. They are not visible to ducks from a distance.

When to Use Each

With the water motion in simple motion duck decoys, you get to trick circling ducks to commit to the spread. It would be best if you used the strobe motion duck decoy to get the attention of ducks flying far away.

A great strategy would be to turn off the strobe effect of your decoy at the opportune time as the ducks approach your spread so as not to scare away the ducks with the vigorous movement. The Avian-X Duck Decoy cuts across the line with a decoy with remote control to turn off wing movement as flying ducks get close for landing.

Build Quality and Material

A poorly built duck decoy will have you running repairs and replacements, offering shorter durability when it comes to hunting.

Hunting equipment should be rugged and durable. The Sturdy structure of the King Mallard effectively provides your decoy with outstanding durability.

Texture and Appearance

May you wonder whether ducks see color? Unlike humans, ducks can see in the ultraviolet spectrum, allowing them to pick out the shining face of a hunter or the strobe effects caused by your duck decoys.

Ducks can easily see the shiny color a poorly made decoy would give off with their excellent vision. Opt for duck decoys that have a coat that resembles that of a duck.

All the duck decoys mentioned in my list have good duck coat resemblance, with the King Mallard Duck Decoy doing quite an impeccable job at this.

Remote Control

A duck decoy with remote control ability will enable you to control the motion of the decoy according to the situation at hand. This freedom will raise your chances of finishing ducks on your spread by letting you tone down the movements of your decoy as ducks fly closer, ready to land and finish.

The Mojo Floater Spinning Wing Decoy gives you the freedom to be creative with your hunting strategies for a better hunting session.

Frequently Asked Questions

With all the ambiguous information surrounding motion duck decoys, it would bring more clarity to answer some of the questions asked about duck decoys.

Conclusion

Whether you’re new to duck hunting or have been knee-deep for a while, you must not underestimate your need for a quality motion duck decoy. In some situations, a large spread of motion duck decoys is successful. In contrast, a smaller, simpler rig of duck decoys attracts more birds in others.

Don’t forget, waterfowl hunting is all about great equipment, wise strategy, and fun.