Not all ducks quack! Some ducks whistle – Emperor Valley Zoo of Trinidad & Tobago
They are very vocal tree ducks that are incredibly photogenic. These ducks almost do not appear real – Instagram user
Six years ago, a Black Bellied Whistling Duck landed in the big lake. The bird is an amazing creature. During that migration it would often stand on top of the wood duck box. Other times it would fly straight into the box. The duck is not particularly small so it’s a wonder it could get inside. The BBW duck mates for life but I only saw one. I could be quite wrong on that since I was unable to identify a male or female. They look just alike and are visually identical. They are beautiful birds, and I enjoyed watching them.
This year a pair of BBW ducks settled down at the pond. Perhaps the reason they did so was the wood duck box had also been moved to the pond. There they were, the two of them standing on top of the box. They stood there like sentinels watching over the pond, alert, still, and with purpose. They had good reasons to be alert. We’ve had a few alligators in the last few years, also eagles, hawks, owls, raccoons, foxes, snakes, coyotes.
This year’s Black Bellied Whistling ducks arrived with two young offspring. They aren’t small like baby ducklings. I described them as “teenagers” They swim well and take turns gliding along either in front of or behind the parents. If the teenagers wander off the parents will not be far behind. Throughout the day mostly the parent birds are resting and overseeing their brood from the floating deck.
On other occasions the teenager BBW ducks are gliding around the pond. Sometime later the parents will join the teenagers and start a water fight, all in fun. Each bird ducks its head and comes up again. The parents will do the same, lots of splashing, diving, and carrying on. Both parents share the care of the ducklings for at least six months.
The pond provides the birds’ primary food, plant material, seeds, grasses, aquatic plants, and agricultural crops like corn and rice. They will supplement their diets with insects, snails, and spiders. They are known to eat grains from fields, such as corn, rice, and wheat. They are mostly nocturnal feeders and may fly out to fields at sunset to forage. We did hear of a friend who found some BBW ducks gleaning the corn he had put up in his barn.
Of all the interesting things about the BBW ducks I would think it would be their coloration. There is no other like it. The adults have a gray face with a brown crown, the body is brown on the back, neck, breast, and a black belly. The wings have a bold white patch, mostly noticed in flight. The crowning glory is the bill and legs being bright pink or reddish pink often looking a tinge of orange. The juveniles have a much duller coloring. It’s a good bird’s life, often lasting 15 years.
Shannon Bardwell is a writer living quietly in the Prairie. Email reaches her at [email protected].
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