White-faced whistling duck

Language English

Onglets

Description

Distinguishing features

Whistling ducks look like big ducks, but in fact are biologically much closer to geese and swans.

In the adult white-faced whistling duck the front of the head is white while the nape is black. The neck and chest are buff colored. The flanks are striped with black and white lines. The beak is black, with a lighter tip. The strong legs are grey. The sexes are similar.

Reproduction

Despite having the appearance of ducks, white-faced whistling ducks have breeding habits closer to those of geese and swans. Unlike ducks, the couple mates for life, and both parents take care of nesting and the young.

Breeding begins with the rainy season. White-faced whistling ducks make their nest on the ground, amid the dense vegetation of marshland, occasionally in the cavity of a tree trunk or the fork of a branch. The nest is made of plants, with the bottom possibly covered with down.

The female lays around 10 white eggs and incubation lasts from 26 to 28 days. So that hatching may happen at the same time, incubation does not begin until the female has laid her last egg (never more than one egg laid a day).

Diet

Ninety-five percent of its food consists of plants, rice and seeds, but it also eats mollusks, insects and crustaceans. During the dry season it also feeds on tubers.

It’s a dabbler, meaning it remains on the surface while dipping its head in the water, the neck stretched toward the bottom, in search of food.

It feeds at dusk or at night, but may also feed during the day.

Predators

Juveniles can be caught by caimans, caracaras (birds in the falcon family that feed on the ground) and jabirus (wading birds in the stork family).

Habitat

It lives close to lakes, marshes, rice fields and waterways, where there are few or no trees, because it avoids forests. It can be found in the Pantanal wetlands and in the Cerrado (Brazilian savannah), as well as in the llanos (savannah and marsh region in Colombia and Venezuela) and in the Guianas. On the other hand it is virtually absent from the great tropical forest of Amazonia.

Curiously, this bird is also found in Africa, south of the Sahara. Moreover, it is believed that it originated on that continent.

Ecology, behaviour

It is relatively garrulous, especially when feeding. Its song is a clear three-note whistle hence its Portuguese name irerê.

It’s a partial migrator, moving only to find a new waterway when these become scarce.

French name

Dendrocygne veuf

Scientific name

Dendrocygna viduata

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Birds

Order

Anseriformes

Family

Anatidae (geese and ducks)

Size

Length: 50 cm Wingspan: 90 cm

Weight

about 680 g

Life span

Up to 15 years in captivity

Status

Least concern (IUCN 2016)

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