West Indian Whistling Duck

[solarpup]

Anyone out there ever hear of anyone raising them in their backyard??? We're in Little Cayman right now, and just saw them at the Booby Pond. *Very* pretty (Google their image! Well worth it!)

We're thinking these might be very difficult to raise in the North where we live, but maybe some of the members in the South might have heard of this breed.

Anyone?

 

[needlessjunk]

Never heard of them and good ol' Google shows them as a tropical bird. I think just finding one in the U.S. with legal paperwork would be hard let alone trying to recreate a tropical environment. Anything is possible though. They are some cool looking ducks!

 

[buff goose guy]

You gonna want to check on the ornamental fowl thread.

 

[Orca5094]

I bred them back when I was an Avian Keeper in South Florida. We called them Cuban Whistling Ducks, though. Very beautiful! And who can resist the sweet sounds of the Whistling Ducks? ^-^

Edit: Oh hey, I found a pic of me with one of my favorite ones! This is me and Leche:

 

[buff goose guy]

I bred them back when I was an Avian Keeper in South Florida. We called them Cuban Whistling Ducks, though. Very beautiful! And who can resist the sweet sounds of the Whistling Ducks? ^-^

Edit: Oh hey, I found a pic of me with one of my favorite ones! This is me and Leche:

The cuteness is real!!! look at that long beak with that creamy and rusty colors aww

 

[Miss Lydia]

I bred them back when I was an Avian Keeper in South Florida. We called them Cuban Whistling Ducks, though. Very beautiful! And who can resist the sweet sounds of the Whistling Ducks? ^-^

Edit: Oh hey, I found a pic of me with one of my favorite ones! This is me and Leche:

That is a beautiful duck how much do they weigh?

 

[solarpup]

Yes! That's them! Very cool.

We saw them dabbling in a muddy pond, at not too far a distance. They looked a little bigger than our mallards, but not substantially so. So, I'd guess they are a little over 3 lbs?

If we lived in Florida, we'd definitely look into raising them. But somehow I think they would be very unhappy with out New England winters (There were days last year when even our mallards would walk out of their coops, take a look outside, and then walk right back into the coop!)

 

[Miss Lydia]

Yes! That's them! Very cool.

We saw them dabbling in a muddy pond, at not too far a distance. They looked a little bigger than our mallards, but not substantially so. So, I'd guess they are a little over 3 lbs?

If we lived in Florida, we'd definitely look into raising them. But somehow I think they would be very unhappy with out New England winters (There were days last year when even our mallards would walk out of their coops, take a look outside, and then walk right back into the coop!)

That's why the wild ones fly south for winter. lol

 

[Orca5094]

They are the largest of the Whistling Ducks and I do believe right around 3 lbs. I took care of about 75 different species of waterfowl so I, unfortunately, can't recall average weights for all of them now. lol! When I was still there I sure could, though!

Yeah, I don't think they'd do well up in the New England area. :/