Black Belly Whisting Ducks Spreading

Carl

Carl

Well-known member
Staff member
Based on reports and sightings from around south Alabama, it appears that Black Belly Whisting Ducks have now established a small but spreading breeding population in coastal Alabama.
We have at least two pairs close to our office that have been checking out nest boxes.
Pairs have been reported north of here as well, and a single was reported on one of the "bird alert" pages as being sighted up on the TN River Valley last week.
With how fast they are spreading, I imagine they will be present & breeding in all the Gulf States soon.
Anyone else seeing them moving into their areas? Are they moving into GA or the Carolinas?
 
in the late spring of 14 or 15 we had a pair hanging around the feed yard for a few weeks, have not seen them since. This would be North Central Kansas.
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I have a buddy who hunts Altamaha in GA fairly regularly (a WMA on the east coast maybe hour or so north of the FL border) and he says that he's seen a good population of black bellies there. Someone in Central FL shot a banded blackbelly a few years back that had been banded in SC. I think they were using color bands on the black bellies up there too.

We seem to have a fair population of them around this area of FL, though typically they're around the bigger lakes. Occasionally I'll see them over here on my side of town and I keep hoping that I will get a pair that is interested in my woodduck boxes, though that would be a long shot since the ponds around me really aren't where I'd expect Black bellies to spend a lot of time. But hey, I can hope.....
 
Dani, where do they usually like to hang out over in FL? I'm seeing them around a couple of good size weedy brackish bays with lots to of marsh around them.
I have yet to see one during hunting season but it's only a matter of time
 
Well we usually see them in ponds or bodies of water with thick emergent vegetation. Lots of lily pads and lotus and grasses. Thinking about it though I did see a flock of them on a pond in the salt marsh once in the Jacksonville area.


I don't often see them hanging out in open ponds. They seem to like really thick areas. This spot was one that was particularly good. They really loved the flowers for some reason...both the fulvous and the blackbellies would land in the flowers. Sometimes you could see just their heads and necks sticking up like flowers....


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Dani,

Those look like swamp/burr marigolds. Once those flowers drop, they'll be covered in seeds we call beggar-ticks...the ones with two little barbs that stick to everything and are seemingly impossible to remove from clothing, goretex in particular. When that happens, BBWD's will work that area day and night until they've picked it clean--they love 'em
 
Dani,

Those look like swamp/burr marigolds. Once those flowers drop, they'll be covered in seeds we call beggar-ticks...the ones with two little barbs that stick to everything and are seemingly impossible to remove from clothing, goretex in particular. When that happens, BBWD's will work that area day and night until they've picked it clean--they love 'em
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Just for the record, rail birds love those yellow burr covered flowers too!
 
It's good to see they are spreading out, we have had a very large population were I grow up for years on top of years.

They lob flooded rice feilds and shallow marsh, they are awesome pot roasted.
 
Robby,


That sounds about right. Our waders would be covered in those little seeds. Sometimes in places so thick you couldn't see that there was anything other than seeds covering us.
 
In addition to what Dani said about floating vegetation, they also seem to be very tolerant of urban areas and will readily hang out at ponds in city parks and developments, especially if the lawn is mowed right up to the waterline. It seems like they'd rather stand than swim.

As far as hunting them goes, I never had one decoy, but they fly in low, tight flocks and move slowly. Once, a friend and I had a flock pass over low and we each dropped three. They tend to start flying well before legal light, especially if they've been hunted. They are large ducks and taste very good in my opinion.
 
I have a friend on the south side of New Orleans who has managed a large number of wood duck nesting boxes for about 30 years. He never had a BBWD in a nest box until after Hurricane Katrina and now he's over run with them most of the year. He still gets a decent number of wood duck nests, but rarely gets the pleasure of seeing them. The BBWDs will swarm his yard most days of the week.

He prefers wood ducks and is bummed about the invasion but he says they are interesting birds. He does not hunt, for whatever that's worth.
 
My good friend just called last week from Ft. Wayne, Indiana and told me he saw about 18 black belly at a local swamp...by the way the legs are good to eat on these birds.
 
Down here in my area we've been getting a expanding population of Blackbellies. There seem to be more and more every year . We have a group of twenty that comes by whistling every evening head to there roost. I've also noticed big jump in the population of what I think are Egyptian Geese. Probably won't be much longer till there will be a population large enough to hunt them?
 
Talked to our local WMA biologist yesterday.

It appears we have at least 8 pairs of BWDs in the local area around our complex.
At least two pairs are nesting in the boxes they put up along the marshy areas a few years back.
They are pretty sure the others are nesting as well but couldn't get close enough to check all the boxes.
The one nest box has 26 BWD eggs in it!
Apparently they are notorious nest dumpers.

On another note, the local Canada Geese have hatched their first broods of the year. I saw what appeared to be 3 pairs with their goslings in one big multi-family group this morning, goslings already stood well over 1' tall. Sure are gangly looking at that age!
 
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