Fulvous Whistling-Duck

How to find it

Start at Palo Verde National Park, where the permanent lagoon is described as the best place to watch huge flocks of waterbirds. The park has an elevated walkway over the lagoon, made for watching birds, and a short bridge trail lets you walk out over the water. Many visitors see the park on a daytime visit that includes a boat trip on the Tempisque River, while others stay overnight at the research station run by the Organization for Tropical Studies. Scan flocks of whistling-ducks for the cinnamon birds among the darker ones. Listen for the whistle, which is often heard before the bird is seen, especially early and late in the day.

How to recognise it

Adults are mostly an even cinnamon-buff, with a black back scaled in chestnut. A white stripe runs down the flank, which helps when the bird is swimming or perched. The bill is grey to bluish-grey.

It is about 51 cm long and weighs about 750 g, with a long neck and long legs.

In flight, look for three things: the legs hang angled downward, the wings look dark, and a white V shows on the rump above the tail. Young birds are like adults but have brown instead of white on the rump.

What it sounds like

Recording: Sol Quipildor, CC BY-SA 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

This duck feeds mostly on seeds. It tips head-down with the tail up, or splashes seeds off the surface. It swims and dives more than other whistling-ducks and perches in trees less.

In Costa Rica it is usually seen in flocks of 20, 35, 50 or more birds. Across its range it feeds by day or night, often in big flocks with other whistling-ducks, and rests in smaller groups at midday.

In flight the wingbeats are slow and the legs dangle. Birds also make strong seasonal moves tied to changing water levels in their habitat.

Where it lives

It lives in open freshwater marshes, flooded fields and the edges of ponds. In Costa Rica it is centred on the Tempisque river basin in Guanacaste's dry northwest, and it almost certainly nests there, for example at Pelón de la Bajura.

Palo Verde National Park sits between the Bebedero and Tempisque rivers, in the lower Tempisque basin. Its conservation areas are listed as Tempisque, Arenal and Huetar Norte.

One observer says it lives only in the northwest and should not occur in the Central Valley, yet the same writer found three birds on a lake there, so strays do happen.

When to see it

Large groups gather at Palo Verde National Park in the dry season. A Costa Rican tourism board bird-route sheet for Palo Verde lists this duck with the months July to September.

Similar birds

The Black-bellied Whistling-Duck is very close in shape and is the duck it is most likely to be mixed up with. It has a blackish belly, while the Fulvous has a mostly buff or cinnamon underside and dark wings. A Costa Rican source calls the Fulvous slightly smaller, and a young Black-bellied can cause confusion. The Fulvous lacks the obvious white face of the White-faced Whistling-Duck.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

In Costa Rica the bird is called pijije canelo, also spelled pijiji canelo. Official lists and a national parks site also give the older names piche canelo and piche barcino. Elsewhere the same duck is yaguasín in Cuba, pato silbador canelo in Ecuador and suirirí bicolor in Spain.

Status and conservation

Listed as R (resident) on the AOCR list; worldwide it is Least Concern, but Costa Rican sources treat it as endangered locally, and it is legally protected.

Photography tips

The lagoon walkway and the short bridge trail at Palo Verde put you out over the water, where flocks can be watched at close range. Early and late in the day the whistle often gives the birds away before you see them. In flight the white V on the rump and the dangling legs make a good picture.