Ducks in Belize | Belize Budget Suites | Ambergris Caye, Belize

Ducks - in Belize

Black-Bellied Whistling Duck

Black Bellied Whistling Duck

Black Bellied Whistling Duck - The Black-bellied Whistling-Duck is a boisterous duck with a brilliant pink bill and an unusual, long-legged silhouette. In places like Texas and Louisiana, watch for noisy flocks of these gaudy ducks dropping into fields to forage on seeds, or loafing on golf course ponds. Listen for them, too—these ducks really do have a whistle for their call. Common south of the U.S., Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks occur in several southern states and are expanding northward.
BELIZE HABITAT - Rice fields, coastal lagoons, other wet or ponded areas with emergent vegetation.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Common to very common late summer and autumn visitor in many areas; smaller numbers in winter through early summer. Nests principally in north, locally in south. Abundance has increased dramatically in last 35 years, with only four records prior to 1965.
INTERESTING BIRD FACTS

The whistling-ducks were formerly known as tree-ducks, but only a few, such as the Black-bellied Whistling-Duck actually perch or nest in trees. They look most like ducks, but their lack of sexual dimorphism, relatively long-term pair bonds, and lack of complex pair-forming behavior more resembles geese and swans.
The oldest recorded Black-bellied Whistling Duck was a male, and at least 10 years, 7 months when it was found in Louisiana.

Fulvous Whistling Duck

Fulvous Whistling Duck - Whistling-ducks are a distinctive group of about 8 species of brightly colored, oddly proportioned waterfowl. The Fulvous Whistling-Duck is a mix of rich caramel-brown and black, a long-legged and long-necked creature found in warm freshwater marshes across the Americas, Africa, and Asia. In the United States they are rarely found far from rice fields, which provide both food and an optimal water depth for these gangly birds to forage in. They often roost in trees and were once known as “tree ducks.”
BELIZE HABITAT - Large, marsh-lined lagoons and estuaries, rice fields.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Fairly common visitor to Crooked Tree Belize, primarily from November to May; small groups occasionally seen at Blue Creek rice fields in Orange Walk and Cox Lagoon in Belize District; one record for south Ambergris Caye. Thus far, only a non-breeding visitor, but may establish breeding population in near future. Unrecorded prior to 1986.
INTERESTING BIRD FACTS

Fulvous Whistling-Ducks sometimes graze vegetation, but unlike Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks, much of their foraging is by filter-feeding—straining fine mud for seeds and invertebrates, as Northern Shovelers do. Adaptations for this type of feeding include well-developed lamellae (comb-like structures) in the bill, plus a broader bill tip that has a strong “nail.”
In some ways, whistling-ducks act more like swans than ducks. The male helps take care of the offspring and mated pairs stay bonded for many years.
Pesticides applied to rice in the 1960s caused declines in Texas and Louisiana populations. Numbers have recovered and stabilized since then.
Fulvous Whistling-Ducks started breeding in the United States only in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, following the start of rice cultivation.
The oldest recorded Fulvous Whistling-Duck was a male, and at least 11 years, 2 months old when a hunter shot him in Cuba in 2004. He had been banded in Florida in 1993.

Masked Duck

Masked Duck - A tropical duck, periodically invading southern Texas and Florida. Smaller than the Ruddy Duck and able to take flight from the water much more easily, the Masked Duck may colonize small and temporary bodies of water. It is generally easy to overlook, as it spends much time resting within dense marsh growth, and may clamber about through marsh like a rail. When on open water, however, it can be rather tame.
BELIZE HABITAT - Marshes with mosaic of open water and dense emergent vegetation.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Winter visitor; recorded Crooked Tree Belize, Big Falls Farm in Belize/Cayo, and Cristo Rey Cayo, December to March. Because of its skulking nature and marshy haunts, it is rarely seen and may be more common than the few records indicate.
INTERESTING BIRD FACTS

Forages mostly by diving & swimming underwater propelled by feet.
Females sometimes lay eggs in each other's nests.
Incubation is by female, about 4 weeks.
Young probably leave the nest shortly after hatching, tended by a female but feed themselves.
Their diet is mostly plant material, including seeds, roots, smartweeds, sedges, grasses and various aquatic and waterside plants.
They also each insects & crustaceans.
Their nests site is among marsh vegetation in shallow water.
Nests build by the female is a woven bowl of reeds, and grasses, perhaps with sparse lining of down.

Muscovy Duck

Muscovy Duck - The strange, warty-faced Muscovy Duck causes confusion for some bird watchers, as it's very distinctive and quite commonly seen, yet does not appear in some field guides. Truly wild individuals are restricted to south Texas and points south, but domesticated versions occur in parks and farms across much of North America. Wild Muscovy Ducks are glossy black with bold white wing patches and are forest dwellers that nest in tree cavities. Their range expanded into Texas in the 1980s; feral populations also exist in Florida.
One of the oldest domesticated fowl species in the world, the Muscovy Duck was already being kept by native people in Peru and Paraguay when the early Spanish explorers arrived. The word “Muscovy” may refer to the Muscovy Company (incorporated in London in 1555), which transported these ducks to England and France.
BELIZE HABITAT - Wooded margins and eddies of major river systems; wooded lagoons, swamps & marshes.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Uncommon to fairly common resident locally on mainland, except Cayo and west Orange Walk, where seldom seen; occasionally on Ambergris Caye. Formerly more common, but numbers have been reduced by hunting.
INTERESTING BIRD FACTS

Aztec rulers wore cloaks made from the feathers of the Muscovy Duck, which was considered the totem animal of the Wind God, Ehecatl.
Wild Muscovy Ducks are dark-plumaged, wary birds of forested areas. Domestic varieties—heavier, less agile birds with variable plumage—live on farms and in parks in warm climates around the world, where they can be confusing to bird watchers. Complicating the issue, male Muscovy Ducks frequently mate with other species and often produce sterile hybrid offspring.
Equipped with strong claws, Muscovy Ducks spend a lot of time perching in tall trees. They make their nests in large cavities of mature trees, but will also use artificial nest boxes. The first recorded wild nest in the United States was found in 1984, in a nest box built for Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks near Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park.
The male Muscovy Duck is the largest duck in North America, but the female is only half his size. After laying 8–15 eggs, she does all of the nest defense and raises the ducklings (which have sharp claws and hooked bills to climb out of the nest). She may also raise additional eggs laid in her nest by sneaky Black-bellied Whistling Ducks.

American Wigeon

American Wigeon - Quiet lakes and wetlands come alive with the breezy whistle of the American Wigeon, a dabbling duck with pizzazz. Breeding males have a green eye patch and a conspicuous white crown, earning them the nickname "baldpate." Females are brushed in warm browns with a gray-brown head and a smudge around the eye. Noisy groups congregate during fall and winter, plucking plants with their short goose like bill from wetlands and fields or nibbling plants from the water's surface. Despite being common their populations are declining.
BELIZE HABITAT - Marshes, estuaries, lagoons, rice fields, farm ponds with shallow, standing water.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Fairly common winter visitor in north, mid-October to early April. Most records are from Crooked Tree Belize and Blue Creek rice fields in Orange Walk. One record for Ambergris Caye, unrecorded south of Belize City.
INTERESTING BIRD FACTS

The rusty-headed Eurasian Wigeon turns up as a rarity in flocks of American Wigeons on occasion, but the American Wigeon also turns up in Europe in flocks of Eurasian Wigeon.
American Wigeons eat a higher proportion of plant matter than any other dabbling duck thanks to their short gooselike bill. The shortness of the bill helps exert more force at the tip so they can pluck vegetation from fields and lawns with ease.
After breeding, successful males and unsuccessful females head north to large lakes where they spend around 35 flightless days growing new feathers before heading south. Successful females and juveniles don't move to molt; they stay in their breeding areas to grow new feathers.
The American Wigeon is also known as "baldpate" because the white stripe resembles a bald man's head.
The oldest American Wigeon reported was at least 21 years and 4 months old.

Green-Winged Teal

Green Winged Teal

Green Winged Teal - The little Green-winged Teal is the smallest dabbling duck in North America. The natty male has a cinnamon-colored head with a gleaming green crescent that extends from the eye to the back of the head. In flight, both sexes flash deep-green wing patches (specula). Look for them on shallow ponds and in flooded fields, and listen for the male’s decidedly non-duck like whistle. These common ducks breed along northern rivers; wintering flocks can number as many as 50,000.
BELIZE HABITAT - Marshes, lagoons, rice fields; farm ponds with shallow, standing water.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Regular winter visitor, December to March. Apparently more frequently formerly.
INTERESTING BIRD FACTS

The American and Eurasian forms of the Green-winged Teal were formerly considered different species. The Eurasian teal differ from the American by lacking the vertical white shoulder stripe and having a horizontal white stripe along the back instead. Eurasian teal show up casually each year along both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts.
The Aleutian Islands of Alaska support their own race of Green-winged Teal, Anas crecca nimia. Unlike other Green-winged Teal populations, this race doesn’t migrate. In winter the birds move from summering sites on ponds and lakes to the islands’ beaches, where they forage in tide pools and on shallow-water reefs.
Green-winged Teals have closely spaced, comblike projections called lamellae around the inner edge of the bill. They use them to filter tiny invertebrates from the water, allowing the birds to capture smaller food items than other dabbling ducks.
Green-winged Teal sometimes switch wintering sites from year to year. One banding study found that individuals wintering in Texas one year went as far away as California in subsequent years. This lack of philopatry, or “faithfulness” to a particular site, may reflect the tendency of males that did not breed the year before to try to find mates among a different set of wintering females.
The oldest known Green-winged Teal was at least 20 years and 3 months, based on banding data. It was a female banded in 1941 in Oklahoma, and recovered by a hunter 1960 in Missouri.

Blue-Winged Teal

Blue Winged Teal

Blue Winged Teal - Pairs and small groups of this tiny dabbling duck inhabit shallow ponds and wetlands across much of North America. Blue-winged Teal are long distance migrants, with some birds heading all the way to South America for the winter. Therefore, they take off early on spring and fall migration, leaving their breeding grounds in the United States and Canada well before other species in the fall.
BELIZE HABITAT - Most areas with shallow, standing, or slow-running water; most common in rice fields and other freshwater marshes.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Common to locally very common winter visitor, early August to mid-May. Most abundant at Crooked Tree Belize and Blue Creek rice fields in Orange Walk.
INTERESTING BIRD FACTS

The Blue-winged Teal is among the latest ducks to migrate northward in spring, and one of the first to migrate southward in fall.
The Blue-winged Teal migrates over long distances. One individual banded in Alberta was shot in Venezuela a month later.
The oldest recorded Blue-winged Teal was a male, and at least 23 years, 3 months old. He had been banded in Saskatchewan and was found in Cuba.

Cinnamon Teal

Cinnamon Teal - The male Cinnamon Teal shimmers with a rich ruddy plumage, made all the more incandescent by the summer sun slanting across reedy wetlands in interior western North America. Males molt this brilliant plumage soon after breeding, becoming much more similar to female and immature birds, and very similar to other teal species, especially Blue-winged Teal. Look for Cinnamon’s longer and wider bill to help tell them apart. An entirely separate population of Cinnamon Teal lives in South America.
BELIZE HABITAT - Similar to that for Blue-Winged Teal.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Winter visitor, September to April. Most records are from Nova Shrimp Farm Belize and Blue Creek rice fields in Orange Walk.
INTERESTING BIRD FACTS

The female Cinnamon Teal often places her nest below matted, dead stems of vegetation so it is completely concealed on all sides and from above. She approaches the nest through tunnels in the vegetation.
Waterfowl fanciers (aviculturalists) often keep this gorgeous duck in their collections, and sometimes these birds escape captivity. Most collectors put a non-aluminum band on the legs of their birds, but if this is missing it can cause problems for ornithologists, because it can be hard to know whether an out-of-range sighting is of a wild bird or an escapee.
The Cinnamon Teal is unusual among ducks: it has separate breeding populations in North America and South America.
Unlike most North American dabbling ducks, the Cinnamon Teal rarely breeds in the midcontinent prairie-parkland region.
The oldest recorded Cinnamon Teal was a female and at least 10 years, 6 months old when she was found in California in 2010. She had been banded in the same state in 2001.

Northern Shoveler

Northern Shoveler - Perhaps the most outwardly distinctive of the dabbling ducks thanks to its large spoon-shaped bill, the Northern Shoveler busily forages head down in shallow wetlands. Its uniquely shaped bill has comblike projections along its edges, which filter out tiny crustaceans and seeds from the water. If the bill doesn’t catch your eye, the male's blocky color palette sure will, with its bright white chest, rusty sides, and green head. The female is no less interesting with a giant orange bill and mottled brown plumage.
BELIZE HABITAT - Marshes, lagoons, rice fields; farm ponds with shallow, standing water.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Uncommon and local winter visitor in north, late September to mid-April.
INTERESTING BIRD FACTS

The bill of the Northern Shoveler is big (about 2.5 inches long) and shaped like a shovel, but that odd-shaped bill also has about 110 fine projections (called lamellae) along the edges that act like a colander, filtering out tiny crustaceans, seeds, and aquatic invertebrates from the water.
Northern Shovelers are monogamous and remain together longer than pairs of most other dabbling ducks. They form bonds on the wintering grounds and stay together until just before fall migration.
When flushed off the nest, a female Northern Shoveler often defecates on its eggs, apparently to deter predators.
Northern Shovelers don't just occur in the Americas, they also breed across Europe and spend the winter throughout Europe, Africa, and India.
The oldest recorded Northern Shoveler was a male, and at least 16 years, 7 months old when he was found in Nevada.

Northern Pintail

Northern Pintail - Elegant Northern Pintails swim through wetlands and lakes with their slender necks and long, pointed tails held high. Intricately patterned and pale-faced females join males fashioned with a signature white stripe down their chocolate-colored necks. These eager breeders head to the prairie pothole region of the Great Plains, as well as Canada, and Alaska to nest as soon as the ice breaks up. Large groups congregate in wetlands, lakes, bays, and even waddle through agricultural fields eating grains during the winter. Though still common, their populations are declining.
BELIZE HABITAT - Marshes, estuaries, lagoons; shallow, standing water in rice fields.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Very uncommon winter visitor in north half, November to early May.
INTERESTING BIRD FACTS

When it comes to breeding, Northern Pintails don't waste any time. They start nesting as soon as the ice starts to thaw, arriving by late April in places as far north as the Northwest Territories, Canada.
Northern Pintails migrate at night at speeds around 48 miles per hour. The longest nonstop flight recorded for a Northern Pintail was 1,800 miles.
Northern Pintails aren't restricted to North America; they also occur in Europe, the Middle East, India, and Asia. In South America the White-cheeked Pintail and the Yellow-billed Pintail take their place.
The oldest recorded Northern Pintail was a male, and at least 22 years, 3 months old when he was found in Saskatchewan, Canada.