We have never seen this bird in our yard before, but yesterday several appeared at the feeders. We looked in our bird books, but couldn't find them. Grandpère said that it may be a Tree Duck. The shape of the head, feet, bill, and body of were similar, but the plumage, bill, and legs and feet of the birds in our yard was so very different in color than the ducks in the picture. We wondered if habitat could have the effect of changing their color that much.
My son said they were definitely Black-bellied Whistling Ducks from Mexico. We went online again and found the ducks, as you see, at another website. The two names seem to be for the same duck, and at the second site we found these words which solved the puzzle:
Juvenile is paler, with grey bill, legs and feet. It has duller plumage than adults, with sooty-brown belly and flanks. It reaches its adult plumage at 8 months of age.
Very young birds have very paler belly, with indistinct transversal bars.
The pictures are from a distance, because I couldn't get closer to the ducks without making them fly away, and my digital camera is not one of the finest. I bought it for its small size and its reasonable price. My regular camera takes much better pictures, but, of course, I have to have the disks developed.
UPDATE: Here's another view. I also posted larger versions of the other pictures.
UPDATE 2: And yet another, though blurred, view of the mystery bird, which I took today:
I think it's a juvenile Black-bellied Whistling Duck. The proof would have been if the bird had whistled for me, but it didn't.
Looks like a wild turkey from here...we have them in the trees in very tropical places.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't look like the whistling ducks we have in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. They are much more colorful and like to sit/stand on the power lines and other cables. I'll email you a photo. Dave Slater
ReplyDeleteI thought of a wild turkey, too. Interesting.
ReplyDeleteGrandpère mentioned a turkey, too, but I don't think it's a wild turkey. The bill is too different. Click on the lower picture to see the bill better.
ReplyDeleteDave, did you read the quote about the coloring of the juveniles?
We've never seen them around here before. They wanted the seeds, so they had to be on the ground. Please send your picture, though. I'd like to see it.
I'm not positive that we have the definitive answer.
Grandmère's Bird Sanctuary, I'm tellin' ya.
ReplyDeleteI'm tellin' ya, Paul. Who knows how much GP spends on those big sacks of bird seed. We're feeding squirrels with the seeds, too.
ReplyDeleteI have never seen one colored like that, but then again, I may never have seen a juvenile. They are related to a duck in the midwest that is known as a wood duck.
ReplyDeleteDave, we have wood ducks here. I recognize them easily, both male and female, and they look more like a duck than this rather scrawny bird.
ReplyDeleteLooks almost prehistoric, doesn't it? I've gotten pretty good at recognizing our feathered friends in Delmarva Bay, but I can't help you with this one, Mimi. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Ms. Conroy's bird seed bill is higher than what some Episcopalians spend on Scotch, Bourbon, Gin or Vodka.
They don't hold their heads like the tree ducks I've seen, which are very upright. Are you sure it was a duck bill?
ReplyDeleteMimi, there are some birds around here the locals call "Mexican Tree Ducks," but the coloring is different than the one in your photo. If I'm remembering correctly, they look more like the ones in this photo of Black-Bellied Whistling Ducks. When I see them they're always in trees or on rooftops, so I never get a really close look.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like a grackle to me, maybe a female. I can't tell how big it is. It does not look like any duck I've ever seen.
ReplyDeleteA vulture Grandmere... maybe it's a local volture!
ReplyDeleteHas a vulture-y look to me too, Mimi - do you have much rotting carrion in your yard? - except that the size of the background fence makes it look a bit on the small side.
ReplyDeleteMay be a hybrid illegal alien vulture, encouraged by the liberals to sneak across the border as part of the first wave of illegals coming here to overload the new Marxist health care system being forced down our throats by Obama and Pelosi.
ReplyDeleteIf they return, demand to see their birth certificates!
IT, I'm not sure the bird had a duck bill. It is not like anything I've ever seen around here. I was startled when I saw it, thinking, "What is that!"
ReplyDeleteGrandpère mentioned a turkey vulture, too, but the bill is different.
Counterlight, it's not a grackle. We have those in the yard sometimes, too.
Mike, it could be the juveniles of the picture you showed us.
The bird is somewhat larger than a pigeon, but scrawnier. Come to think of it, if I remember correctly, when the group of them were feeding, all the other birds disappeared.
Lapin, they were eating seeds not carrion. The group was spread out over a wide area and picking at seeds in the grass.
If the birds return, I'll try to get a better picture.
Crapaud, that's an excellent idea. Now why didn't I think of that?
Turkey vultures have featherless red heads and are a lot bigger than the tree ducks.
ReplyDeleteMike, I agree. They're not turkey vultures. My son says he sees the birds often in a small bayou near where he works. He's the one who came up with the idea of the Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, and I believe that he's closest to the truth as of now.
ReplyDeleteAll our utilities are underground, so we have no utility wires around here, where the birds can hang out.
And they do make a whistling sound.
ReplyDeleteI they're whistling, at least we know they can't be Queer.
ReplyDelete[Ancient homophobic British joke. Can explain if necessary.]
Lapin, no queer birds in our yard. Ours is not an inclusive yard. We screen all birds for homosexual tendencies.
ReplyDeletePlease explain the ancient homophobic joke, but don't offend anyone in the process.
That bird is Chuck, the Whistling, Dancing, Tree-Duck-Who-Prefers-The-Lawn.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure a listing exists on Wikipedia.
Padre, the problem is my poor pictures. There are listings everywhere. However, I believe that you have solved the puzzle for us. Your answer is spot on.
ReplyDeleteIt was, and may still be, a belief that "queers can't whistle". Why not, I will leave to your imagination. Tom Driberg, the Labour politician - of whom Winston Churchill said "[he] is the sort of person who gives sodomy a bad name" (Driberg was also, of course, a fervent Anglo-Catholic) - noted in his autobiography that in his experience the maxim is broadly true. Driberg's autobiography "Ruling Passions", the first out-of-the-closet British autobiography, was published in 1977, a year after his death.
ReplyDeleteLapin, gotcha. 'Nuff said. I'm a little unimaginative, but eventually I get it.
ReplyDelete"If they return, demand to see their birth certificates!"
ReplyDeleteBird certificates, surely?