The West Indian whistling duck (''Dendrocygna arborea'') is a

whistling duck The whistling ducks or tree ducks are a subfamily, Dendrocygninae, of the duck, goose and swan family of birds, Anatidae. In other taxonomic schemes, they are considered a separate family, Dendrocygnidae. Some taxonomists list only one genus, ...

that breeds in the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

. Alternative names are black-billed whistling duck and Cuban whistling duck.

Taxonomy

The West Indian whistling duck was

formally described A species description is a formal scientific description of a newly encountered species, typically articulated through a scientific publication. Its purpose is to provide a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differ ...

in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

in the

tenth edition Tenth may refer to: Numbers * 10th, the ordinal form of the number ten * One tenth, , or 0.1, a fraction, one part of a unit divided equally into ten parts. ** the SI prefix deci- ** tithe, a one-tenth part of something * 1/10 of any unit of me ...

of his ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the Orthographic ligature, ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Sweden, Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the syste ...

'' under the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

''Anas arborea''. Linnaeus based his account on the descriptions by earlier authors. In 1725 the Irish physician, naturalist and collector

Hans Sloane Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet, (16 April 1660 – 11 January 1753), was an Irish physician, naturalist, and collector. He had a collection of 71,000 items which he bequeathed to the British nation, thus providing the foundation of the British ...

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 The whistling ducks or tree ducks are a subfamily, Dendrocygninae, of the duck, goose and swan family of birds, Anatidae. In other Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic schemes, they are considered a separate family (biology), family, Dendrocygnidae. S ...

'' that was introduced in 1837 by the English naturalist

William Swainson William Swainson Fellow of the Linnean Society, FLS, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (8 October 1789 – 6 December 1855), was an English ornithologist, Malacology, malacologist, Conchology, conchologist, entomologist and artist. Life Swains ...

. The species is treated as

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

: no

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

are recognised. The genus name combines the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

''dendron'' meaning "tree" with the genus '' Cygnus''. The specific epithet ''arborea'' is from

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

''arboreus'' meaning "tree".

Description

The West Indian whistling duck is the largest and darkest of the whistling ducks with a length of . The female weighs from and the male weighs from ; this species is about the size of a

mallard The mallard () or wild duck (''Anas platyrhynchos'') is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa. It has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Arge ...

.Carboneras, C. and G. M. Kirwan (2020). ''West Indian Whistling-Duck (Dendrocygna arborea)'', version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. It has a long black bill, long head and longish legs. It has a pale foreneck and light brown face. The crown, back, breast and wings are dark brown to black, and the rest of the underparts are white with heavy black markings. All plumages are similar, except that juveniles are duller and have a less contrasted belly pattern.

Distribution

The West Indian whistling duck is widely scattered throughout the West Indies, including a large breeding population in

the Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of ...

, and smaller numbers in

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

, the

Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory, and the largest by population. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located so ...

Antigua and Barbuda Antigua and Barbuda is a Sovereign state, sovereign archipelagic country composed of Antigua, Barbuda, and List of islands of Antigua and Barbuda, numerous other small islands. Antigua and Barbuda has a total area of 440 km2 (170 sq mi), ...

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ) is an island between Geography of Cuba, Cuba and Geography of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and the second-largest by List of C ...

(both the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

and

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

), and

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

. It is largely sedentary, apart from local movements, which can be 100 km or more.

Behaviour

Breeding

Nests have been reported in tree cavities, on branches, in clumps of

bromeliads The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and one in tropical west Africa, ...

, and on the ground under

thatch palm Thatch palm is a common name for several different species of palm trees that are used for thatching, and may refer to: *'' Coccothrinax'', many species native to the Caribbean *'' Howea'', two species native to Lord Howe Island, Australia *'' Thri ...

s and other dense bushes. The usual

clutch size A clutch of eggs is the group of eggs produced by birds, amphibians, or reptiles, often at a single time, particularly those laid in a nest. In birds, destruction of a clutch by predators (or removal by humans, for example the California condor b ...

is 10–16

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...

s. It habitually perches in trees, which gives rise to its specific name.

Food and feeding

The birds are mostly

nocturnal Nocturnality is a ethology, behavior in some non-human animals characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnality, diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatur ...

and secretive, inhabiting wooded

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

s and

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...

s, where this

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family (biology), family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and goose, geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfam ...

roosts and feeds on plant food including the fruit of the

royal palm ''Roystonea regia'', commonly known as the royal palm, Cuban royal palm, or Florida royal palm, is a species of Arecaceae, palm native to Mexico, the Caribbean, Florida, and parts of Central America. A large and attractive palm, it has been plan ...

Threats

The West Indian whistling duck has suffered extensive hunting for its eggs and for sport.

Wetlands A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

are a very limited habitat in the

, with continuing conversion for development and agriculture. More than 50% of remaining wetlands are seriously degraded by the cutting of

s and swamp-forest, pollution (especially over-use of pesticides1) and natural catastrophes such as

drought A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, ...

s and

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its ...

Predation Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common List of feeding behaviours, feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation ...

is inadequately documented but may be a factor.

Current conservation measures

''D. arborea'' is ranked under

CITES CITES (shorter acronym for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of inte ...

Appendix II, as well as

CMS CMS may refer to: Computing * Call management system * CMS-2, a programming language implemented for and used by the United States Navy * Code Morphing Software, a technology used by Transmeta * Collection management system for a museum coll ...

Appendix II. It is legally protected throughout much of its range, but law enforcement is inadequate. The West Indian Whistling Duck Working Group initiated a conservation programme in 1997. There are several protected areas in the region but, in general, suitable habitat, especially wetlands, is under-represented. Ducks are predated on Antigua and Barbuda by the

small Indian mongoose The small Indian mongoose (''Urva auropunctata'') is a mongoose species native to Iraq and northern India; it has also been introduced to several Caribbean and Pacific islands. Taxonomy ''Mangusta auropunctata'' was the scientific name proposed ...

s introduced to control the cane rats which was largely unsuccessful as the rats live in trees.

Proposed conservation measures

Conduct extensive surveys to assess numbers and distribution; assist local authorities in establishing a long-term monitoring programme; conserve key sites; enforce legal protection; initiate public education and awareness programmes.

References

* ''Wildfowl'' by Madge and Burn, * Staus, N.L. 1998. Behavior and natural history of the West Indian Whistling Duck on Long Island, Bahamas. ''Wildfowl'' 49: 194–206.

External links

BirdLife Species Factsheet.
birdlife.org *

ARKive ARKive was a global initiative with the mission of "promoting the conservation of the world's threatened species, through the power of wildlife imagery", which it did by locating and gathering films, photographs and audio recordings of the wor ...

images and movies of the West Indian whistling-duck ''(Dendrocygna arborea)''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q378192

West Indian whistling duck 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. Taxonomy The West Indian whistling duck was formally describ ...

Endemic birds of the Caribbean Birds of the Dominican Republic Birds of Haiti