Dendrocygna autumnalis
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
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 Manuel Antonio National Park on a given day, based on 236 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 74th most-seen of the 325 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August and October
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Black-bellied Whistling-Duck in Manuel Antonio National Park on a given day, against under 5% in December to March, the lowest months. Those are among Manuel Antonio National Park's wettest months, with about 840 mm of rain a month against 35 mm in February.
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.
15th of 48
Of the 48 parks where we can rate Black-bellied Whistling-Duck sightings, Manuel Antonio National Park ranks 15th at about 10%. 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.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black-bellied Whistling-Duck is recorded against all the birds logged in Manuel Antonio National Park (236 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.
