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Fulvous Whistling-duck
Dendrocygna bicolor
NatureServe conservation status
Global (G-rank): G5
State (S-rank): SNA
External links
Phenology
Feeds mostly at night.
Species range
BREEDING: in Hawaiian Islands (Oahu); in North America in southern California, southwestern Arizona, central and eastern Texas, and Gulf Coast Louisiana south to central Mexico (to Nayarit, Jalisco, valley of Mexico, northern Veracruz); locally in southern Florida, the West Indies (Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and Grand Bahama south to Barbados, Grenada, Tobago, and Trinidad), El Salvador, central Honduras, and northwestern Costa Rica; in South America from Colombia, northern Venezuela, and Guianas south, west of Andes, to northwestern Peru, and east of Andes to southern Bolivia, Paraguay, and northeastern Argentina; in Old World in East Africa, Madagascar, India, Sri Lanka, and southwestern Burma (AOU 1998). NON-BREEDING: in Hawaiian Islands (Oahu), southern California and southern Arizona, Gulf Coast, and central to southern Florida south to Oaxaca, Tabasco, and Quintana Roo, and in the breeding range elsewhere in Neotropics, South America, and Old World (AOU 1998).
Migration
Some breeders from Florida migrate to Cuba (Turnbull et al. 1989).
Habitat
Shallow fresh and brackish waters, preferring marshes, lagoons, wet cultivated fields, and occasionally forest (AOU 1983). Closely associated with rice culture in some areas (e.g., Florida). Generally on ground or in water; seldom perches in trees. Nests on hummocks among reeds and marshy vegetation (AOU 1983), in areas between ponds and swamps, or on levees and dikes and on rafts a few inches or more above water in flooded fields (Harrison 1979). Commonly lays eggs in the nests of other fulvous whistling ducks, sometimes in nests of ruddy duck and redhead.
Food habits
Eats grain (especially rice), seeds, and structural plant material; forages in fields and on or near the bottom in shallow water .
Ecology
Characteristically gregarious.
Reproductive characteristics
Clutch size usually is 12-14. Incubation, by both sexes, lasts about 28 days. Young are tended by both parents, first fly at 55-63 days.
Threats or limiting factors
PESTICIDES: Pesticide is a potential source of mortality. Formerly (1960s) negatively impacted by the use of the pesticide Aldrin in Louisiana ricefields. In 1984 and 1985, organochlorine and organophosphate were found in tissue samples from birds in Florida. Levels, however, were below those known to pose a threat to birds and there was no evidence of lethal impact (Turnbull et al. 1989).
