That is how we call them here, does someone knows how they call them in other places ?

The travel a LOT by night, they fly high and they have a very nice whislting.



L

Lorenzo,
In Southern Africa they are called Whiteface Duck or Whiteface Whistling Ducks.

The name is Afrikaans is wondefully descriptive -
'Nonnetjie Eend', meaning 'Nun duck' due their heads looking like Nuns Habits

Lorenzo,

They are called White-faced Whistling Ducks...that is their new name. The old name is White-faced Tree Ducks.

I have hunted them both in South America as well as in South Africa. There is technically no difference in genetic terms hence the African and South American birds are not considered a separate sub-species.

Here is one from my collection.

collector, how about posting a Fulvous and Black Bellied?
Thanks,
David

Here you go David....they are actually both mounted together on the same habitat because I hunted them out of the same blind in Los Mochis, Mexico.


Fulvous Whistling Duck....




Black-bellied Whistling Duck




...and here is my favorite....Plumed Whistling Duck. (there are 8 Whistling Duck species in the world)

I have heard them called peppers & tree ducks.

We have a single species here in Florida.

Hi Larry,

A friend of mine who hunts near Lake Okeechobee shoots both Fulvous and Black-bellied on a regular basis now. Maybe the hurricanes had something to with it but now both species can be hunted in Southern Florida. I am sure they will find their way to your neck of the woods (swamps) in Central Florida pretty soon

Those are some very pleasant mounts.

Collector:

I have a quick funny story about the fulvous.

We were hunting on Lake Jessup many years ago. They had a point system back then with values ranging from 10 to 100 points. Once you got over 100, you were limited out.

I promptly shot a green wing teal, 10 points. Then I shot a drake wood duck, 70 points. There were these big flocks of ducks (we thought) flying over but we had never seen them before. It was decided that I would shoot 1 and we would inspect. The next flock flies over. I shot 1 time and lo & behold 3 ducks fell with the single shot. Upon inspection, they were fulvous tree ducks, a 100 point duck. I am now at 380 points.

We packed up and left. When we got to the boat landing, we were met by a game warden who wanted to check us. Well, I didn't lie or try and hide the 3 fulvous tree ducks. He started laughing. They had watched us with spotting scopes and knew exactly what happened. He let me go with no ticket. He did comment that he probably would not have believed the story had they not seen it themselves. He also figured that we would trash 2 of the ducks and they would get us for willful and wanton waste of game.

I considered myself lucky that day.

larryshores,

Great story and just shows how friendly and reasonable the game wardens are in your neck of the woods (swamps)

So I was hunting down in Southern Florida, we were there for 3 days. At the airboat ramp we would see the "man's" truck but never saw the "man". Low and behold last day he was waiting for us at the ramp. Friendly gentleman, he checked everything, licenses, stamps, signatures, plugs, bird counts, posession limits ...we were by the book and it was a nice interaction. Here are some pics from that trip.


This truck was there every day.



I even took a closeup pic...I knew he will pop up somewhere down the road



Last day in the swamp....




The "man" checking us as we arrived at the ramp...

This is become me favorite section to look into. Collector you must have alot of duck mounts , I would like to see them some time.

More great mounts, collector......I have a ways to go before I get remotely close(and that's putting it mildly). I did just get my wigeon mount back from MT.....I'll post up a pic of the bald pate once I get him out of the box.

blaser93
You can see the mounts in the comfort of your living room.
http://www.elitehuntingusa.com/books.html


Norton
Thanks, I have been very lucky to have collected all 8 Whistling Duck species of the world. Congratulations on your bald plate, a friend of mine managed to get a Storm Wigeon out west. They are pretty cool looking too.

Thanks Oz for posting the tree ducks. Other than the occasional hybred Mallard cross, my only "rare" bird is a Ross Goose in Blue phase. I hope to get another one someday as we're beginning to see them more often.
Good hunting,
David

Holy crap David a Ross in Blue Phase is just about the rarest of all birds in all of North America....CONGRATULATIONS !!! now that is a once in a lifetime trophy.


TRUE STORY:
I ran into a hater once (believe me once in a while I run into them) he was a biologist by trade and his argument was that there are no true blue phase Ross geese and the ones people think are Blue Phase Ross are actually hybrids between a Ross Goose and a Blue Phase Lesser Snow Goose. Just because the biologists do not have enough samples to dissect and analyze for empirical proofing does not mean that a bird does not exist. There are very few Blue Phase Ross Geese out there and I am sure any biologist will give his left nutt to get his hands on one.

ANOTHER TRUE STORY:
A biologist at Natural History Museum in Washington DC wanted Greater Snow Geese in Blue Phase (They are also very very rare...just about as rare as a Blue Phase Ross)...so I got one and I sent him an email. I thought he was going to request a feather or two, may be a bit of skin attached for genetic analysis. Lets just say when I heard what he really wanted had steam coming out of my ears. They basically wanted the whole bird donated to them, I had to pay the shipping, no bird back...just a Thank You. Guess where my Greater Snow Goose in Blue Phase is at ? Yes, you guessed it....on my wall...all 100% of it.

Not all Biologists are nutts...I have hunted with a few who appreciated bird hunting and understood what it takes to get a rare bird like your Blue Phase Ross or a Blue Phase Greater Snow.

Man you are killing me with your ducks !!!

Today I was at a work meeting when a blue winged duck (I just call them like that, I don't have idea their real name ) pass flying near the window...(yes my office in sorrounded by farm )..

I just ignored my guest and follow the duck as he was flying away...what a view !! Beatiful !!

When I turned round to the desk the man gave me a weird look but didn't say nothing and continue talking about how good his angus bull was

L

I took a look at your web page....outstanding !!!

As simple as that. Congratulations.

There is only one little detail I don't like...you don't offer hunts in the best southamerican country. Argentina is great, I know, but...is full of argentinians

L

Hi Lorenzo,

Glad you enjoyed the website. And yes the paperwork is almost done and Uruguay and Zimbabwe will be added to our website soon

I am wondering if the duck that you saw near your office was Pato Cutiri ? In English we call them Brazilian Duck or Brazilian Teal. Here is mine that I collected a while back.

Three days ago I was bass fishing on Lake El Salto in Sinaloa Province, Mexico. Catching bass and watching small flocks of fulvous tree ducks as well as green-wing teal, blue wing teal, cinnamon teal and northern pintails in every little bay.

By the way, after 32 years in wildlife law enforcement, I can assure you that the worst thing you can do is to lie or try to hide illegal animals from a conservation officer. When someone lied to me it usually was obvious and I took it that the hunter thought I was stupid enough to believe his lies. Larryshores did the right thing and it payed off for him!

465H&H

Collector, those are fabulous mounts, thanks for sharing them with us.

Collector, beautiful mounts & I thoroughly enjoy your posts; as to the White Faced Whistling Ducks, about 4-5 years ago I saw several at a homeowners' association pond of about 5 acres in size, between Auburn and Placerville in the Nor Cal foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. If I hadn't seen them myself, at about 15 yards, I wouldn't have believed it, but White-Faced Whistling Ducks they were.... On a similar note, a guy who hunts near one of my clubs shot a Black Duck about 3 years ago, and another shot a Baikal Teal... saw pics of both, one of the great things about waterfowling...

Regards,
Craig Nolan

quote:

Originally posted by Craig Nolan:
Collector, beautiful mounts & I thoroughly enjoy your posts; as to the White Faced Whistling Ducks, about 4-5 years ago I saw several at a homeowners' association pond of about 5 acres in size, between Auburn and Placerville in the Nor Cal foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. If I hadn't seen them myself, at about 15 yards, I wouldn't have believed it, but White-Faced Whistling Ducks they were.... On a similar note, a guy who hunts near one of my clubs shot a Black Duck about 3 years ago, and another shot a Baikal Teal... saw pics of both, one of the great things about waterfowling...

Regards,
Craig Nolan

You said it, Craig. One of the reasons I too dearly love waterfowling. Never know what might come in. This guy was hanging out in a pond behind my buddy's place in Idaho. I'd not have taken a poke at him with a BB gun or somesuch, but I'd sure as hell have given it some serious consideration!

@465H&H
I bet you can write a book on all of your interesting experiences with that many years in the field. I would love to read the stories. Maybe a project to take on...I am sure the hunting community will support a book like that if it had some humor mixed in

@DLS
Thank you...glad you enjoyed the pics. We all learn from each other here on this forum !!!

@Craig
Thank you, glad you enjoy the posts...I am a visual person so expect to see a lot of pics down the road I am shocked the White-faced whistling ducks are in that area. They are not supposed to be in North America. They are only found in South America and Africa. So my guess is that they could be escapees from an aviary. To explain it to our big game friends...this is the equivalent of someone finding a Kudu in the woods of Maryland....just not possible. Unless ofcourse somehow these birds escaped from an aviary and established a local population.
Now the Mandarin Ducks have small native populations both in California as well as in Britain...but everyone knows their lineage so they are not a mystery. But White-faced whistling ducks in California....that is worth investigating. Maybe you can bag a few (there should be no restriction on hunting them, Federal or State, because they are a non-native species to North America). Document the hunt, I am sure it can be published in a magazine.

Black duck in Cali...could be a wild bird. Baikal teal in Cali...they are found in the Aleutian chain so you cannot rule out wild birds.

Fun stuff waterfowling....I love it !!!

Collector, I've no doubt you're correct that they're escapees rather than wayward migrants. Believe you me, I'd have LOVED to have eliminated them from the ecosystem, but, as they were on a homeowners' association pond in a no shooting area, not worth a trip to the clink (but DAMN close )...

KG, nice pic of the Mandarin; I saw one of those one time, up in the NorCal rice country near a refuge; right off of State Hwy 162 there was a newly flooded field, and the ducks were POURING, and I mean POURING, into this field in huge vortices of birds. There must've been 10,000 + ducks in this relatively small field, we pulled out the binos' and saw just about every species of duck in the Pac Flyway, represented in this field; mallards, pintails, cinnamon and greenwing teal, shovelers, wigeon, wood ducks, etc... and right in the center was a Mandarin drake, looking just like the one in your pic...

Good thing I hadn't had any aiming fluid in me yet (after all, it was only about 9 am...), otherwise, well, you can imagine....

Best Regards,
Craig

"Aiming fluid"?

I am going to remember "Aiming Fluid" till the day I die !!! That is really funny