Habitat
Shallow freshwater or brackish wetlands with tall grass, including freshwater lakes, seasonal freshwater pools, slow-flowing streams, marshy areas, swamps in open flat terrain and flooded grasslands.
Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Bahamas, Bangladesh (NB), Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Congo (B), Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Costa Rica, Côte dIvoire, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, French Guiana, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Martinique, Mauritania, Mexico, Montserrat, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands Antilles, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and The Grenadines, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Tanzania [United Republic of], Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Uganda, Uruguay (B), USA (B), Venezuela, Zambia (B), Zimbabwe.
Vagrant to Bermuda, Bhutan, France, Grenada, Israel, Jamaica, Morocco, Oman, Portugal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Virgin Islands (British), Virgin Islands (U.S.), Yemen.
Southern USA southwards to northern and eastern South America, as far as northern Argentina. Africa south of Sahara from Senegal to Ethiopia south to South Africa and Madagascar. Indian Subcontinent east to Burma.
Population
Estimated population is 1,300,000 - 1,500,000 (2010).
Food
Predominantly vegetarian. Aquatic seeds and fruits, bulbs, leaf shoots, buds and the structural parts of aquatic plants such as grasses and rushes. Occasionally take small aquatic insects.
Fulvous Whistling Duck (Dendrocygna bicolor) [XC459633]
by id from Estancia La Candelaria, Buenos Aires, Argentina (flight call)
Fulvous Whistling Duck (Dendrocygna bicolor) [XC222339]
by Dan Lane from Anahuac NWR, TX, United States (call)
Nest
A mound of plant material, often floating on water and well concealed amidst vegetation. Also in tree hollows and disused stick nests of large birds, including crows and kites.
Subspecies
Forms superspecies with Wandering Whistling-Duck (Dendrocygna arcuata). Population of southern USA and northern Mexico has been assigned separate subspecies helva, but doubtfully valid.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet