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Home/Species/ Black-bellied Whistling-Duck

Dendrocygna autumnalis

(Linnaeus, 1758)

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck

G5Secure Found in 4 roadless areas NatureServe Explorer →
G5SecureGlobal Rank
Least concernIUCN
Identity
Unique IDELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.106215
Element CodeABNJB01040
Record TypeSPECIES
ClassificationSpecies
Classification StatusStandard
Name CategoryVertebrate Animal
IUCNLeast concern
CITESAppendix III
Endemicoccurs (regularly, as a native taxon) in multiple nations
KingdomAnimalia
PhylumCraniata
ClassAves
OrderAnseriformes
FamilyAnatidae
GenusDendrocygna
Other Common Names
Dendrocygne à ventre noir (FR) Marreca-Cabocla (PT) Sirirí Vientre Negro, Pijije Ala Blanca (ES)
Concept Reference
American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1998. Check-list of North American birds. Seventh edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C. [as modified by subsequent supplements and corrections published in The Auk]. Also available online: http://www.aou.org/.
Conservation Status
Review Date1996-11-20
Change Date1996-11-20
Range Extent>2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)
Range Extent Comments
Resident from central Sonora, southern Arizona (breeds irregularly), Distrito Federal (Mexico), and central and southeastern Texas south through most of Middle America and South America west of Andes to western Ecuador, east of Andes to eastern Peru, Bolivia, northern Argentina, Paraguay, and southeastern Brazil; formerly bred in Puerto Rico; one breeding record for Tennessee, possibly based on escaped individuals. Possibly expanding range into eastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana (see McKenzie and Zwank 1988). In the U.S., occurs in winter primarily in southern coastal Texas (Root 1988).
Threat Impact Comments
Susceptible to overharvest due to unwariness.
Ecology & Habitat

Habitat

Freshwater and brackish marshes, lagoons, and borders of ponds and streams; often forages in cultivated fields (AOU 1983); wet pastures. Rests in or beside water by day (Stiles and Skutch 1989). Perches readily in trees (Ridgely and Gwynne 1989). Nests in tree cavities (sometimes considerable distance from water), nest boxes, or on the ground in grassy areas or under brush/cactus near water; ground nesting most common where mammalian nest predators absent; sometimes nests on or in human-made structures. See McKenzie and Zwank (1988) for details on nest sites.

Ecology

Gregarious. Large flocks observed in wintering areas in Mexico and Central America (though formerly more abundant in interior Mexico than at present).

Reproduction

Most nesting occurs May-June in Texas; September-October breeding in Venezuela; adults with young April-August and December-February in Colombia (Hilty and Brown 1986); nests May-October in Costa Rica (Stiles and Skutch 1989). Clutch size is 9-18. Incubation, by both sexes, lasts 25-30 days. Young are tended by both sexes, leave nest at 1-2 days, first fly at 56-63 days. Apparently breeds in first year. Life-long pair-bond. Intraspecific dump nesting is common. Nest density of 16/ha was observed on islands in Tamaulipas, Mexico.
Terrestrial Habitats
Cropland/hedgerow
Palustrine Habitats
HERBACEOUS WETLANDFORESTED WETLANDRiparian
Other Nations (1)
United StatesN5
ProvinceRankNative
AlabamaSNRYes
TexasS5BYes
KentuckyS1B,S1NYes
FloridaS4Yes
ArizonaS2B,S3NYes
South CarolinaS5BYes
OklahomaSNRYes
MississippiSNAYes
ArkansasS1BYes
Roadless Areas (4)
Arizona (1)
AreaForestAcres
TumacacoriCoronado National Forest44,594
Idaho (1)
AreaForestAcres
Bear CreekCaribou-Targhee National Forest118,582
Illinois (1)
AreaForestAcres
Ripple HollowShawnee National Forest3,788
Texas (1)
AreaForestAcres
Little Lake CreekNational Forests in Texas596
References (27)
  1. American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1983. Check-list of North American Birds, 6th edition. Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, Kansas. 877 pp.
  2. American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1998. Check-list of North American birds. Seventh edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C. [as modified by subsequent supplements and corrections published in <i>The Auk</i>]. Also available online: http://www.aou.org/.
  3. BirdLife International. 2004b. Threatened birds of the world 2004. CD ROM. BirdLife International, Cambridge, UK.
  4. Braun, M. J., D. W. Finch, M. B. Robbins, and B. K. Schmidt. 2000. A field checklist of the birds of Guyana. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
  5. Castro, I. and A. Phillips. 1996. A guide to the birds of the Galapagos Islands. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
  6. Glazener, W. C. 1946. Food habits of wild geese on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Journal of Wildlife Management 10:322-329.
  7. Hammond, M. C., and G. E. Mann. 1956. Waterfowl nesting islands. Journal of Wildlife Management 20:345-352.
  8. Harrison, C. 1978. A Field Guide to the Nests, Eggs and Nestlings of North American Birds. Collins, Cleveland, Ohio.
  9. Harrison, H. H. 1979. A field guide to western birds' nests. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. 279 pp.
  10. Hilty, S.L. and W. L. Brown. 1986. A Guide to the Birds of Colombia. Princeton University Press, Princeton, USA. 836 pp.
  11. Howell, S. N. G., and S. Webb. 1995. A guide to the birds of Mexico and northern Central America. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
  12. Hughes, R. J., A. Reed, and G. Gauthier. 1994. Space and habitat use by Greater Snoow Goose broods on Bylot Island, Northwest Territories. Journal of Wildlife Management 58:536-545.
  13. Madge, S., and H. Burn. 1988. Waterfowl: An Identification Guide to the Ducks, Geese and Swans of the World. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, Massachusetts. 298 pp.
  14. McKenzie, P. M., and P. J. Zwank. 1988. Habitat suitability index models: black-bellied whistling-duck (breeding). U.S. Fish Wildl. Serv. Biol. 22 pp.
  15. Palmer, R. S., editor. 1976. Handbook of North American birds. Vol. 2. Waterfowl (first part). Whistling ducks, swans, geese, sheld-ducks, dabbling ducks. Yale Univ. Press, New Haven. 521 pp.
  16. Parker III, T. A., D. F. Stotz, and J. W. Fitzpatrick. 1996. Ecological and distributional databases for neotropical birds. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
  17. Raffaele, H. A. 1983a. A guide to the birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Fondo Educativo Interamericano, San Juan, Puerto Rico. 255 pp.
  18. Raffaele, H., J. Wiley, O. Garrido, A. Keith, and J. Raffaele. 1998. A guide to the birds of the West Indies. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. 511 pp.
  19. Ridgely, R. S. 2002. Distribution maps of South American birds. Unpublished.
  20. Ridgely, R. S. and J. A. Gwynne, Jr. 1989. A Guide to the Birds of Panama. 2nd edition. Princeton University Press, Princeton, USA.
  21. Ridgely, R. S., and J. A. Gwynne, Jr. 1989. A guide to the birds of Panama with Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras. Second edition. Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, New Jersey. 534 pp.
  22. Root, T. 1988. Atlas of wintering North American birds: An analysis of Christmas Bird Count data. University of Chicago Press. 336 pp.
  23. Sibley, D. A. 2000a. The Sibley guide to birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
  24. Stiles, F. G. and A. F. Skutch. 1989. A guide to the birds of Costa Rica. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, USA. 511 pp.
  25. Terres, J. K. 1980. The Audubon Society encyclopedia of North American birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
  26. Williams, C. S., and C. A. Sooter. 1941. Canada Goose habitats in Utah and Oregon. Transactions of the North American Wildlife Conference 5:383-387.
  27. Zook, J. L. 2002. Distribution maps of the birds of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. Unpublished.