Ducklings stop Sydney peak-hour traffic

A family of ducks has stopped morning traffic as they waddled across roads in Sydney's inner west.

A father, mother and their 10 ducklings travelled half a kilometre through the streets of Marrickville on Friday, bringing out the best in morning commuters.

Resident Miguel D'Souza saw the birds as he was driving his children to school.

They pulled over and gently shepherded the birds along their perilous route to the Cooks River near Mackey Park.

"I had three kids with me. There were cars pulling over left, right and centre, but they never looked scared," Mr D'Souza said.

"Then again, I can't read ducks very well."

The Australian wood ducks were presumably chaperoning the babies from their nesting spot in a tree hole to the river for their first swim.

Almost 20 cars, cyclists and people on foot waited patiently for them to cross or tried to help.

Some ducklings ran into trouble when they became stuck in a grate or struggled to reach a footpath from the gutter.

"There were a few stragglers so I had to cup my hands and scoop them up onto the footpath," Mr D'Souza said.

He said the stars aligned to help the ducks survive their journey.

"It was raining but there was a rare break in the clouds for that 20 minutes - it was perfect," he said.