Dendrocygna arborea
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The West Indian whistling duck (Dendrocygna arborea) is a whistling duck that breeds in the Caribbean. Alternative names are black-billed whistling duck and Cuban whistling duck. The West Indian whistling duck was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Anas arborea. Linnaeus based his account on the descriptions by earlier authors. In 1725 the Irish physician, naturalist and collector Hans Sloane had described and illustrated the "Whistling-Duck" in the second volume of his A Voyage to the Islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica. Sloane noted that it was common on the island of Jamaica. The English naturalist George Edwards had included a description and a hand-coloured illustration of the "Black-bill'd whistling Duck" in the fourth volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds that was published in 1751. Edwards had been able to examine a specimen at the home of Admiral Sir Charles Wager at Stanley House in Chelsea, west London.
The West Indian whistling duck is now one of eight species placed in the genus Dendrocygna that was introduced in 1837... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Los Haitises National Park | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic | |
| 2 | Ciénaga de Zapata | 🇨🇺 Cuba |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santo Domingo | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Parc des oiseaux | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 2 | Zoo Miami | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Dallas Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Gatorland | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Little Rock Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Parco Zoo Punta Verde | 🇮🇹 Italy | |
| 7 | Jardín Zoológico El Bosque | 🇨🇺 Cuba | |
| 8 | Randers Tropical Zoo | 🇩🇰 Denmark | |
| 9 | Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo | 🇧🇲 Bermuda | |
| 10 | Wild Discovery Zoo | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a West Indian Whistling-Duck sighting in Santo Domingo on a given day, based on 435 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 21st most-seen of the 110 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February and October–December
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a West Indian Whistling-Duck in Santo Domingo on a given day, against about 20% in August, the lowest month.
Between 2 and 5 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most West Indian 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.
Only Santo Domingo, in our data
Santo Domingo is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate West Indian Whistling-Duck sightings: about 40% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the West Indian Whistling-Duck is recorded against all the birds logged in Santo Domingo (435 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.
