Dawn the Duck dons Scotland flag to join Tartan Army in bagpipe march

A duck from Providence with a big social media following became an unofficial mascot for Scotland fans as he joined the Tartan Army in Friday's pre-match bagpipe march.

Dawn the Duck, also known as Dawny, donned a Scottish flag on his back along with his usual golden medallion to lead the march in Rhode Island ahead of Friday’s World Cup clash with Morocco.

He is the latest duck to join in the football fun, after Mexico fans adopted Merlin as their unofficial mascot.

Dawn is well known as a “rally duck” and rose to fame in 2024 when he attended a match of the Providence College Friars basketball team. However, he was soon banned from the stadium over animal welfare concerns.

But Dawn still frequently attends events across Providence, and has over 30,000 followers on Instagram.

He joined the Tartan Army in the march after a large number of Scottish fans decided to stay at Providence, about 25 miles from the stadium hosting their first two Group C matches.

The Scottish fans also took over Boston, where they nearly drained the local bars of all their beer.

"This has been one of the most fun eight days in the city of Providence in a long time, and that's due in no small part to our new best friends from Scotland," Providence mayor Brett Smiley told NBC10.

Scotland are coming off a 1-0 win over Haiti, and will hope to secure their place in the knockouts before Wednesday's clash with Brazil in Miami.

(Reporting by Chiranjit Ojha in Bengaluru; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)