A Black-Bellied Whistling Duck Specimen from Nebraska

Authors

Thomas E. Labedz, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

6-1990

Citation

Labedz, "A Black-Bellied Whistling Duck Specimen from Nebraska," from Nebraska Bird Review (June 1990) 58(2).

Comments

Copyright 1990, Nebraska Ornithologists' Union. Used by permission.

Abstract

On 29 October 1989 John Andersen of Ong, Nebraska, shot and killed an adult male Black-bellied Whistling-Duck while duck hunting at Hansen Waterfowl Production Area, 3 miles north and 1 mile west of Ong, Clay Co., Nebraska (T6N R5W Section 35). Andersen's brother-in-law, Stewart Porterfield of Lincoln, was present at the time and tentatively identified the specimen but returned to their vehicle to get a bird book for reference (Porterfield, pers. comm. 2 November 1989). Mr. Porterfield took the frozen, intact duck specimen to the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission office in Lincoln where it was recommended that the specimen be deposited at the University of Nebraska State Museum (UNSM).

The frozen specimen was delivered and donated to UNSM (Accession Z-1989-55) by Mr. Porterfield on 2 November 1989. The specimen was prepared as a standard study skin and partial skeleton by the author on 7 November 1989 and catalogued into Division of Zoology's collections as UNSM ZM-16079.

Dendrocygna autumnalis (Linnaeus), the Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, is not on the official list of birds in Nebraska (N.O.U.R.C., 1988, 1989) and was not listed as even hypothetical in a critically evaluated list of Nebraska birds (Bray et al., 1986). However, Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks, whose normal range is from southern Arizona and southern Texas south to southern Brazil and Argentina, have wandered north, including to Kansas, Iowa, and Michigan (AO.U., 1983). There are three records of this species in Kansas (Thompson & Ely, 1989) and a recent sighting in Minnesota that is under consideration of the Minnesota Ornithologists' Union Records Committee (Tveten, 1989). A written description and photographs of UNSM ZM-16079 have been submitted to the Nebraska Ornithologists' Union Records Committee for consideration.