Dendrocygna autumnalis
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The black-bellied whistling duck (Dendrocygna autumnalis) or black-bellied tree duck, is a whistling duck that before 2000 bred mainly from the southernmost United States to south-central South America. It can be found year-round in much of the United States. It has been recorded in every eastern state and adjacent Canadian province. Since it is one of only two whistling duck species native to North America, it is occasionally just known as the "whistling duck" or "Mexican squealer" in the southern USA.
In 1751 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the black-bellied whistling duck in the fourth volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds. He used the English name "The red-billed whistling duck". Edwards based his hand-coloured etching on a live bird kept at the home of Admiral Charles Wager in Chelsea, London. Edwards was told that the bird had come from the West Indies. When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition, he placed the black-bellied whistling duck with the ducks, geese and swans in the genus Anas. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Houston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | San Antonio | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Guayaquil | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 4 | Monterrey | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 5 | León | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 6 | Campo Grande | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 7 | Santa Cruz de la Sierra | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 8 | Miami | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Vitória | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 10 | Austin | 🇺🇸 United States |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Black-bellied Whistling-Duck sighting in Celestún Biosphere Reserve on a given day, based on 16 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 231st most-seen of the 297 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Black-bellied Whistling-Duck in Celestún Biosphere Reserve on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black-bellied Whistling-Duck sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
39th of 48
Of the 48 parks where we can rate Black-bellied Whistling-Duck sightings, Celestún Biosphere Reserve ranks 39th at under 5%. The best odds are in Palo Verde National Park (Costa Rica, about 70%), Lago de Yojoa (Honduras, about 30%) and Iberá National Park (Argentina, about 30%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Anatidae
The closest relatives of the Black-bellied Whistling-Duck that you can see in Celestún Biosphere Reserve (family Anatidae, Ducks, Geese, and Swans) are Blue-winged Teal (about 30%), Northern Shoveler (about 10%) and Lesser Scaup (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black-bellied Whistling-Duck is recorded against all the birds logged in Celestún Biosphere Reserve (16 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
