Dendrocygna autumnalis
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
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 |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black-bellied Whistling-Duck sighting in Austin on a given day, based on 2,693 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 51st most-seen of the 277 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March to July
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Black-bellied Whistling-Duck in Austin on a given day, against under 5% in January and February, the lowest months.
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.
10th of 37
Of the 37 cities where we can rate Black-bellied Whistling-Duck sightings, Austin ranks 10th at about 10%. The best odds are in Houston (United States, about 30%), San Antonio (United States, about 20%) and Guayaquil (Ecuador, about 20%).
Same family: Anatidae
The closest relatives of the Black-bellied Whistling-Duck that you can see in Austin (family Anatidae, Ducks, Geese, and Swans) are Gadwall (about 20%), Mallard (about 20%) 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 Austin (2,693 verified sightings), 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.
