Uproarious Duck

The Black-bellied Whistling-Duck is an uproarious duck with a splendid pink bill and an irregular, since a long time ago legged profile. In spots like Texas and Louisiana, look for boisterous groups of these pretentious ducks dropping into fields to rummage on seeds, or loafing on fairway lakes.

Listen for them, as well these ducks truly do have a whistle for their call. Basic south of the U.s., Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks happen in a few southern states and are stretching northward.

Black-bellied Whistling Duck

The Black-bellied Whistling Duck or Black-bellied Whistling-Duck(Dendrocygna autumnalis), formerly also called Black-bellied Tree Duck, is a whistling duck that breeds from the southernmost United Statesand tropical Central to south-central South America. In the USA, it can be found year-round in parts of southeast Texas, and seasonally in southeastArizona, and Louisiana's Gulf Coast. It is a rare breeder in such disparate locations as Florida, Arkansas, Georgia and South Carolina. There is a large population of several hundred that winter each year in Audubon Park in uptown New Orleans, Louisiana.

It is widely known as pijije (also pixixi or pichichi), chiriría or sirirí in Latin America, though this can also refer to other whistling-ducks and a qualifyer such as ala blanca or aliblanco ("white-winged") is usually added to signify this species. In Mexico, it is also called pato maízal ("cornfield duck") due to its habit of visiting such fields after harvest. And since it is one of only two whistling-duck species native to North America, it is occasionally just known as the "whistling duck" in the southern USA.

The Black-bellied Whistling Duck is an unusual species among North American waterfowl. With its long legs, peculiar appearance and odd habits, it was described by one early American ornithologist[who?] as "most un-duck-like". Its numbers are increasing in North America.

Whistling duck

The whistling ducks or tree ducks are a subfamily, Dendrocygninae of the duck, goose and swan family of birds, Anatidae. They are not true ducks. In other taxonomical approaches, they are either considered a separate family "Dendrocygnidae", or a tribe "Dendrocygnini" in the goose subfamily Anserinae (e.g. Terres & NAS, 1991).

The subfamily has one genus, Dendrocygna, which contains eight living species, and one known from hitherto undescribed subfossils from Aitutaki, Cook Islands (Steadman, 2006). These species have a worldwide distribution through the tropics and subtropics. These ducks have, as their name implies, distinctive whistling calls.

The whistling ducks have long legs and necks, and are very gregarious, flying to and from night-time roosts in large flocks. Both sexes have the same plumage, and all have a hunched appearance and black underwings in flight.

Black-bellied Whistling Duck

The Black-bellied Whistling-duck (Dendrocygna autumnalis), formerly also called Black-bellied Tree Duck, is a whistling-duck that breeds from the southernmost United States and tropical Central to south-central South America. In the USA, it can be found year-round in parts of southeast Texas, and seasonally in southeast Arizona, and Louisiana's Gulf Coast. It is a rare breeder in such disparate locations as Florida, Arkansas, Georgia and South Carolina.