The black-bellied whistling duck (Dendrocygna autumnalis) or black-bellied tree duck, is a whistling duck that before 2000 bred mainly from the southernmost United States to south-central South America. It can be found year-round in much of the United States. It has been recorded in every eastern state and adjacent Canadian province. Since it is one of only two whistling duck species native to North America, it is occasionally just known as the "whistling duck" or "Mexican squealer" in the southern USA.
Taxonomy
In 1751 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the black-bellied whistling duck in the fourth volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds. He used the English name "The red-billed whistling duck". Edwards based his hand-coloured etching on a live bird kept at the home of Admiral Charles Wager in Chelsea, London. Edwards was told that the bird had come from the West Indies. When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition, he placed the black-bellied whistling duck with the ducks, geese and swans in the genus Anas. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Anas autumnalis, and cited Edwards' work. The black-bellied whistling duck is now placed in the genus Dendrocygna that was introduced in 1837 by the English naturalist William Swainson to distinguish whistling ducks from other waterfowl. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek dendron meaning "tree" with the genus Cygnus containing the swans that was introduced by François Alexandre Pierre de Garsault in 1764. The specific epithet autumnalis is Latin meaning "autumnal".
Two subspecies are recognised. They intergrade in Panama.
D. a. fulgens Friedmann, 1947 – southeast Texas to Panama
Larger, with a brown breast and upper back.
D. a. autumnalis (Linnaeus, 1758) – Panama to Ecuador and northern Argentina
Smaller, with gray breast and upper back.
