Whistlers In The Trees
(Critters • )
The tree ducks are back, flying around in big, noisy circles overhead in groups of six or eight, bouncing around about 50 feet up in the treetops, annoying the squirrels with their early morning racket.
People here refer to them as Mexican Whistling Ducks, but they’re more properly Dendrocygna autumnalis, the Black-bellied Whistling Duck. They have reddish-orange bills and long, pink legs. They’re like clowns in the trees, hopping up and down and hooting at each other, playing teeter-totter on broken but unfallen branches. I haven’t had a lot of luck photographing them, but my wife got some good ones yesterday.
A few of the tree ducks hang around here most of the year, but many more join them in the spring. I don’t know where they arrive from; they range down to Argentina.
Sometimes they lay their eggs in the middle of wide pecan branches high up in the air. I never see any evidence of nests. I’ve also never noticed any chicks, but I have found broken white eggs on the ground on occasion.
They don’t seem to mourn the loss; they’re too busy having a good time. Also, they rarely poop on the cars, which is a big plus in my book.
→ B.Dunn, Mar 31, 2010, 07 39 AM
