Wandering whistling duck (Wandering tree duck)

Dendrocygna arcuata

Wandering fluiteend (Wandering boomeend) 

Wanderpfeifgans / Dendrocygne à lunules

The Wandering whistling duck  inhabits tropical and subtropical Australia, the Philippines, Borneo, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands. There are three subspecies associated with this bird:

• D. a. arcuata (Horsfield, 1824) – Philippines, S Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, Moluccas and Lesser Sundas.
• D. a. pygmaea Mayr, 1945 – New Britain, where possibly extinct; formerly also Fiji.
• D. a. australis Reichenbach, 1850 – S New Guinea lowlands and N & E Australia.

Birds of N New Guinea intermediate between nominate arcuata and australis. The wandering whistling duck lives in deep lagoons, flooded grasslands or dams. They enjoy the water and rarely leave the shore. They can swim and dive with ease.

This species has a large range, with an estimated global Extent of Occurrence of 1,000,000-10,000,000 km². It has a large global population estimated to be 200,000-2,000,000 individuals (Wetlands International 2002). Global population trends have not been quantified, but the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List (i.e. declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations). For these reasons, the species is evaluated as Least Concern.

Above: Wanderling whistling duck family (2021, Lutten, Netherlands)