Overview
RandomDuck serves random photos and illustrations of ducks from a community-curated collection, returning a JSON object with the direct image URL. It requires no authentication and responds to a single GET request, making it ideal for a first fetch() exercise. The API also supports a plain-text endpoint that returns just the image URL for even simpler integration.
Beginner Tip
Hit https://random-d.uk/api/v2/random to get a JSON response with a "url" field — assign that value directly to an img src to display the duck photo.
Measurement Record
What actually happened when we called this API from our own infrastructure. Every value below was recorded by the request, not copied from the provider's documentation.
- Request
- GET https://random-d.uk/api/v2/random
- Result
- HTTP 200 · application/json · 76 bytes · compressed
- Response time
- 260 ms (median of 3) · fastest 253 ms
- Transport
- TLSv1.3 · TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 · certificate issued by Google Trust Services
- Browser CORS
- No Access-Control-Allow-Origin header — call it from a server, not the browser
- Served by
- cloudflare
- Recorded
- 2026-08-10
Fields Returned
Top-level fields present in the response we captured, with the type and value we actually received.
| Field | Type | Value received |
|---|---|---|
| message | string | Powered by random-d.uk |
| url | string (url) | http://random-d.uk/api/494.JPG |
Captured Response
Captured from a real request to https://random-d.uk/api/v2/random on 2026-08-10. Long arrays and nested objects are truncated to keep the shape readable.
{
"message": "Powered by random-d.uk",
"url": "http://random-d.uk/api/494.JPG"
} Field Reference
url Direct URL to the duck image — suitable for use as an img src. message A fun duck-related message, typically "quack". Implementation Example
Calls a real endpoint of this API. Replace any placeholder credentials with your own key.
const url = "https://random-d.uk/api/v2/random";
const response = await fetch(url);
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${response.status}`);
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data); What Can You Build?
Note: These code examples are AI-generated and unverified. Always refer to the official API documentation for accurate usage.
How This API Fails
We deliberately sent this API a broken request and recorded exactly what came back on 2026-08-10. Knowing the shape of an error before you hit it makes error handling much easier to write.
Returned an HTML error page rather than JSON — worth knowing if your client assumes every response can be parsed as JSON.
Common Errors & Troubleshooting
Generated guidance based on this API's documentation, not observed by us. Treat it as a starting point and check against the provider's own error reference.
Measured Score Breakdown
Live HTTP request to the API endpoint
Fully tested on Aug 10, 2026
Technical Specifications
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