Figure 3. A tale of two whistling-ducks: California records of the Black-bellied Whistling-Duck—such as the bird in the foreground, photographed on 5 June 1995 at Ramer Lake, Imperial County—increased during the 1990s. By contrast, the Fulvous Whistling-Duck—one of which is visible in the background—has nearly vanished as a breeder and post-breeding visitor (1995-063; Edward D. Greaves).

Figure 4. California occurrences, by decade, of the Black-bellied Whistling-Duck. The increased frequency of occurrence since 1970 coincides with the species’ range expansion and population increase in northwestern Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and Florida.

BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING-DUCK Dendrocygna autumnalis (Linnaeus, 1758)

Accepted: 31 (86%)	Treated in Appendix H: no
Not accepted: 5	CBRC review: all records
Not submitted/reviewed: 8	Larger image with caption: click here

This rangy duck is resident from southern Sonora, central Texas, southern Louisiana, Florida, and Cuba south through most of Middle America and northern South America. The species also occurs in south-central Arizona and from extreme southeastern Arizona south to southern Sonora, with at least the Arizona populations having increased markedly since the mid twentieth century (Russell and Monson 1998, James and Thompson 2001, Corman and Wise-Gervais 2005). During the 1990s small numbers of birds reached southern New Mexico and southern Nevada, and the species has recently become established near La Paz in Baja California Sur, where it first bred in 2004 (Sauma et al. 2005). The breeding range has also recently expanded northward in Texas, and increasing numbers are being found in the Great Plains, Upper Midwest, and Southeast regions. The species is also occurring more widely as a vagrant (see, for example, the summary by Brinkley 2006:335–336). Birds, some of which may have been escapees, have been recorded as far north as Minnesota, Wisconsin (including apparent breeding in 1999, NAB 54:53), Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia.

California’s first published record of a Black-bellied Whistling-Duck involves one reportedly collected during fall 1912 in the Imperial Valley (Bryant 1914a). The specimen apparently was never accessioned into a scientific collection, and its whereabouts are unknown. The first documented record involves the 19 June 1938 specimen of an adult from Buena Vista Lake, Kern County, of which the Committee finally became aware in 2000! Each of the 30 subsequent accepted individuals is from the Salton Sink—one in 1951 and the rest since 1972. About half have occurred between 27 May and 28 August.

Figure 4 shows the number of Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks detected in California by decade. The 1990s saw a spike of 15 birds, and the year 2000 brought records of four more, but no wild birds were reported from 2001 through the end of 2006 (cf. the Neotropic Cormorant account). Still, with the Fulvous Whistling-Duck on the verge of extirpation in California (Hamilton in press) and Black-bellied numbers increasing over a broad area, the latter species may yet become the more “expected” whistling-duck in California.

This duck is popular in captivity (e.g., Todd 1979, 1996; see also Lee 2000). A 10 March 2005 query of the International Species Information System yielded listings of 172 individuals at zoos and other participating institutions in North America, including 12 in San Diego County, one in San Francisco County, and seven in Arizona. Sexton and Hunt (1979) noted the presence of pinioned stock at the former Lion Country Safari in Irvine, and the CBRC voted not to endorse the natural occurrence of an adult present from 18 to 28 July 1970 at nearby San Joaquin Marsh. The CBRC in 2007 voted to re-review this record. Between 2002 and 2005 the Riverside County Flyway Association released 86 Black-bellied and 61 Fulvous Whistling-Ducks—all banded—in Corona, western Riverside County, where Black-bellieds are now seen routinely, and this hunting club intends to continue this practice as funding allows (fide Dharm Pellegrini). On 16 October 2003 a known escapee was found on a golf course near Hollister in San Benito County (fide G. McCaskie) and in summer 2004 a tame bird was easily captured at a ranch near the Salton Sea in Imperial County (2006-015; record not accepted by the CBRC). Thus the finder of a Black-bellied Whistling-Duck in California should check for bands or other suggestions of prior captivity, when possible.