Willem is a wildlife artist based in South Africa. He says "My aim is simply to express the beauty and wonder that is in Nature, and to heighten people's appreciation of plants, animals and the wilderness. Not everything I paint is African! Though I've never been there, I'm also fascinated by Asia and I've done paintings of Asian rhinos and birds as well. I may in future do some of European, Australian and American species too. I'm fascinated by wild things from all over the world! I mainly paint in watercolours. . . but actually many media including 'digital' paintings with the computer!"

I treat you today to one of the world's many pretty duck species: the White-faced Whistling Duck, Dendrocygna viduata. The scientific name means 'widow tree-swan'. In Afrikaans it's called a Nonnetjieseend, or 'little nun duck'. Both the 'widow' and 'nun' allusions refer to the white face of this duck, as if it were wearing a veil. Males and females look the same. The white-faced whistling duck is unusual for its very wide distribution in tropical Africa, Madagascar and South America.

In South Africa, the three-part whistled call of this duck is one of the most familiar bird sounds. The first two whistles are on the same note, the final one descends: 'whee-whee-wheeuu'. They usually call in flight, often at night. Together with dikkops and jacobin cuckoos, these are the bird calls I hear most frequently in the night in the Polokwane suburbs. So ubiquitous are whistling duck calls, that the Cape Robin-Chat in my garden frequently mimics them and includes their calls in its song improvisations.

The whistling ducks form a well-defined group or tribe in the duck, goose and swan family (the Anatidae). Like their relatives the swans, they have long tracheas (windpipes), to help them produce their whistled calls. They have proportionately long necks and legs, the feet projecting beyond the tails in flight. Several species are able to perch in trees, their webbed feet not discomfiting them.

White-faced whistling ducks don't perch much, but can often be seen standing on the banks of a lake, pond or river. They forage mainly at night. They feed by diving down and pulling up the tubers and stems of aquatic plants, or by dabbling on the surface for the floating parts. They feed as well on molluscs, crustaceans and other invertebrates. They may take some plants such as grass growing on the banks as well, and enter farm fields to feed on crops, sometimes considered a pest in rice paddies. They usually occur in flocks, sometimes numbering in the hundreds, and associate with other duck species such as red-billed teals or fulvous whistling ducks. Several individuals usually stand resting beside the water, or swim together on its surface. When something scares them, they take flight and whistle in unison.

In South Africa, and indeed in much of tropical Africa, rains are unpredictable. Some years see very little rain, while in others, the rain comes down in torrents all summer long. Because of this, water bodies are unpredictable in their extent, some ponds and lakes growing vastly in size during wet seasons. Like other aquatic birds in these regions, white-faced whistling ducks move around in response to the rains, finding the water bodies that are most suitable each season. They fly mostly by night. Usually they move only a few hundreds of kilometres, but occasionally turn up very far away such as in Spain. They are one of several species to actually benefit from human activities: dams and ponds made by humans have greatly increased the number of water bodies in the drier parts of Africa, and the whistling ducks have been quick to find and make use of them.

White-faced whistling ducks are monogamous and faithful to their partners. The male and female engage in ritual mating displays: they stand and face each other, then fly up facing each other as in a square dance. They mate on the ground, and afterwards they each raise a wing and step around each other. They also preen each other, nibbling at each other's necks and faces. The nest is often situated well away from the water, in a tussock of grass or other concealing vegetation. The clutch can be six to twelve eggs. The ducklings hatch open-eyed, covered in down and able to walk and swim. Their parents are very protective of them, keeping them hidden in dense vegetation, often feigning a broken wing to lure predators away from them. The ducklings feed mostly on aquatic insect larvae.

In South Africa, this duck has undergone an amazing expansion in its range and an increase in its numbers. At the start of the twentieth century, it was still only present in the far northeast and northwest and even there considered rare; today it is found over just about the entire eastern half of the country. This is likely due, as I've said, to their ability to make use of man-made bodies of water. Today the white-faced whistling duck is one of the most abundant of the local ducks, and also one of the most recognizable. But familiarity doesn't breed contempt – no matter how many times I've seen them, I always enjoy their beauty!

Willem

24.04.23 Front Page

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