‘BAHAMA DUCK‘ Anas bahamensis
Photos taken on Abaco by Gerlinde Taurer, a major contributor to “Birds of Abaco”
WHITE-CHEEKED PINTAIL . ABACO . BAHAMAS
Tag Archives: White-cheeked Pintail Abaco
WHITE-CHEEKED PINTAILS and BAHAMA DUCKLINGS
WHITE-CHEEKED PINTAILS and BAHAMA DUCKLINGS
The white-cheeked (‘Bahama’) pintail Anas bahamensis (aka ‘Bahama duck’) is everyone’s favourite dabbling duck. Or at least it ought to be. And when there are ducklings swimming with the adults, there is no emoticon yet devised that will convey the extremes of cuteness achieved.
Credits: all absolutely adorbs photos are by Tom Sheley & Charles Skinner
WHITE-CHEEKED PINTAILS and BAHAMA DUCKLINGS
WHITE-CHEEKED PINTAILS and BAHAMA DUCKLINGS
The white-cheeked (‘Bahama’) pintail Anas bahamensis (aka ‘Bahama duck’) is everyone’s favourite dabbling duck. Or at least it ought to be. And when there are ducklings swimming with the adults, there is no emoticon yet devised that will convey the extremes of cuteness achieved.
Credits: all absolutely adorbs photos are by Tom Sheley & Charles Skinner
ABACO CHECKLIST: 40 BIRDS IN A DAY
ABACO CHECKLIST: 40 BIRDS IN A DAY
South Abaco – the whole area south of Marsh Harbour – provides by far the best birding opportunities for a day of varied birding. A recent party led by birding guide Reginald Patterson included Charmaine Albury in the enthusiastic team. She sent me their checklist for the day – 40 species covering an impressive range of bird types. Here is the list, to which I have added some illustrative photographs.
BAHAMA PALM SHORES
1. Blackfaced Grassquit
2. Greater Antillean Bullfinch
3. Red-winged Blackbird
4. Gray Catbird
5. Abaco (Cuban) Parrots
6. Painted Bunting
7. Northern Mockingbird
8. La Sagra’s Flycatcher
9. Cuban Pewee
10. Yellow-throated Warbler
11. Western Spindalis
12. West Indian Woodpecker
13. Cape May Warbler
14. Ovenbird
15. Eurasian Collared Dove
16. Common Ground Dove
17. Bananaquit
18. Red-legged Thrush
19. Turkey Vulture
20. Cuban Emerald Hummingbird
21. Thick-billed Vireo
BPS Duck Pond
22. Blue-winged Teal
23. Green-winged Teal
24. Common Gallinule
SAWMILL SINK BLUE HOLE
25. Olive-capped Warbler
26. Yellow-rumped Warbler
27. Loggerhead Kingbird
28. Prairie Warbler
HIGHWAY ROADSIDE
29. Bahama Warbler
30. American Kestrel
GILPIN POND
31. White-cheeked (Bahama) Pintail
32. Great Egret
33. Great Blue Heron
34. Tricolored Heron
35. Lesser Yellowlegs
36. Solitary Sandpiper
SANDY POINT
37. Laughing gulls
38. Ruddy turnstone
39. Sanderlings
40. Royal terns
The checklist covers a broad range of birds that you might expect to see in habitats ranging from coppice to pine forest to water to shoreline. Most are permanent residents, with some winter residents (eg the painted bunting, Cape May warbler). Abaco specialities include the parrots of course, the West-Indian woodpecker and the olive-capped warbler.
And birds that might, on another day, be seen? Maybe the endemic Bahama Woodstar hummingbird and the endemic Bahama Swallow. At Gilpin Pond, black-necked stilts and perhaps a belted kingfisher. And at Sandy Point, brown pelicans fishing off the dock and the chance of white-tailed tropicbirds off-shore. But overall a ’40 day’ is a great day!
We are just back on Abaco last night, and without actually trying – and just from the balcony in about 20 minutes – we have scooped:
Turkey Vulture, Black-faced Grassquit, Bananaquit, Bahama Swallows, Loggerhead Kingbird, La Sagra’s Flycatcher, and Thick-billed Vireo – also Oystercatchers heard from the beach. Time to investigate further…
Credits: Tom Sheley (1); Keith Salvesen (2, 5, 8, 9); Craig Nash (3); Gerlinde Taurer (4, 6); Tom Reed (7); Nina Henry (10)
AFTER THE STORM: ALL THINGS BRIGHT & BEAUTIFUL
ABACO PARROT
AFTER THE STORM: ALL THINGS BRIGHT & BEAUTIFUL
For tens of thousands of people, the past 2 weeks have been dominated by one cruelly aggressive female: Irma. In terms of a lucky escape, Abaco’s gain was elsewhere’s pain. Recently, only the vivid Wunderground trackers I have posted have stood out from the bleakness of the ominous clouds, pounding waves, and sluicing rain. With the prospects for Hurricane Jose wandering around in the mid-Atlantic looking increasingly good, it’s time for a look at something more cheerful.
Birds can lighten the spirit. As yet, I’ve seen few reports of how the birds on Abaco have fared, but the ones I have seen have been encouraging. A west-indian woodpecker back on his usual tree; a piping plover foraging on the beach at Winding Bay, even as the storm raged; bird business more or less as usual at Delphi. No news yet of Abaco’s iconic parrots, which will have most likely headed to the National Park for cover. They usually manage OK. The header image is a tip of the hat to them, their raucous beauty, and their healthy recovery from near-extinction over the last few years.
Here’s a small gallery of some of Abaco’s most colourful and striking birds for some light relief. Have a nice day!
Photo Credits: Abaco (Cuban) Parrot, Melissa Maura; Painted Bunting, Tom Sheley; Bananaquit, Keith Salvesen; Western Spindalis, Craig Nash; White-cheeked (Bahama) Pintail, Keith Salvesen; Cuban Emerald (f), Keith Salvesen; Bahama Woodstar, Tom Sheley; Black-necked Stilt, Tom Sheley; Cuban Pewee, Keith Salvesen; Osprey, Tom Sheley; Bahama Yellowthroat, Gerlinde Taurer. Storm tracker, Wunderground
WHITE-CHEEKED PINTAILS & BAHAMA DUCKLINGS
WHITE-CHEEKED PINTAILS & BAHAMA DUCKLINGS
The white-cheeked (‘Bahama’) pintail is everyone’s favourite dabbling duck. You can see them in large numbers at Gilpin Pond, and in slightly lesser numbers in the pond on Treasure Cay golf course. You may come across the occasional pair or singleton way out on the Marls. Wherever they may be, spring means duck ahem… erm… sex. And that means… gorgeous ducklings. Like the ones below. You can see more Abaco pintails HERE but this post showcases the delightful progeny of mama duck (not forgetting papa duck’s role, of course).
This means ‘get any closer to my darling ducky at your peril, back away now, you’ve been warned’.
A proud pair of parents. No, I can’t tell which is which – males and females are very similar. My guess is that the female is nearest.
Credits: all absolutely adorbs Anas bahamensis photos are by Tom Sheley & Charles Skinner
FREE BONUS FOR MAY! BAHAMA PINTAIL DRAWING LESSON!
GILPIN POINT, ABACO: A ‘2 HOURS, 40 SPECIES’ BIRDING HOTSPOT
GILPIN POINT, ABACO: A ‘2 HOURS, 40 SPECIES’ BIRDING HOTSPOT
Got a spare couple of hours? Reluctant to go birding on the bird-reliable yet ambience-lite town dumps, where careful cropping will be needed to avoid including post-apocalyptic scenery in your hard-won photos of a Little Mulligatawny Owl? Then read on. I have mentioned Gilpin Point before as a great place for birding, and listed many of the species to be found there. It benefits from a large pond, a pristine shoreline, and a coppice environment with some pine forest thrown in. All the makings of an excellent birding location, with suitable habitat for a wide variety of species. 
On November 21st Reg Patterson, well-known Abaco birder and guide, was up early, and by 07.00 he was at Gilpin Pond where he spent a couple of hours . He recorded 40 species in that time, from very large to very small. His checklist reveals a great cross-section of the birdlife to be found on Abaco. There might easily have been parrots there too, since Gilpin has become one of their daily chattering spots for a frank exchange of news and views. Sadly it seems that the beautiful and (now) rare SPOONBILL recorded there in early October has moved on.
Here is Reg’s checklist, which I have illustrated with a variety of photos of the species he found, all taken on Abaco and many actually taken at Gilpin Point. There are plenty of other species that might easily have been seen there then – or perhaps later in the day (e.g. snowy egret, yellowlegs, kestrel, turkey vulture, red-legged thrush, cuban emerald, not to mention shorebirds and seabirds if some time was spent on the shore).
CHECKLIST
Blue-winged Teal (16) (see above)
White-cheeked Pintail (20)
Green-winged Teal (1)
Great Blue Heron (1)
Great Egret (1)
Little Blue Heron (2)
Tricolored Heron (2)
Green Heron (2)
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron (1)
Turkey Vulture (7)
Common Gallinule (1)
Black-necked Stilt (1) (and header)
Spotted Sandpiper (1)
Willett (1) (see above)
Common Ground-Dove (1)
Smooth-billed Ani (8)
Bahama Woodstar (1)
Belted Kingfisher (1)
West Indian Woodpecker (7)
Hairy Woodpecker (1)
Peregrine Falcon (1)
Loggerhead Kingbird (4)
Thick-billed Vireo (7)
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (1)
Red-legged Thrush (1)
Gray Catbird (4)
Northern Mockingbird (2)
Ovenbird (1)
Northern Waterthrush (6)
Bahama Yellowthroat (1)
Common Yellowthroat (1)
Cape May Warbler (3)
Black-throated Blue Warbler (1)
Palm Warbler (2)
Prairie Warbler (2)
Bananaquit (1)
Black-faced Grassquit (6)
Greater Antillean Bullfinch (4)
Western Spindalis (7)
Red-winged Blackbird (X)
Credits: Alex Hughes (1 / header); Keith Salvesen (2, 4, 6, 7, 11, 12, 15 , 16); TBC (3, 5); Bruce Hallett (8, 14); Tony Hepburn (9); Tom Reed (10); Charles Skinner (13)
BAHAMA PINTAILS ON ABACO (WITH YELLOWLEGS PHOTOBOMB)
BAHAMA PINTAILS ON ABACO (WITH YELLOWLEGS PHOTOBOMB)
I’m not going to pretend that these are particularly meritorious bird photos in any way. We were at Gilpin Point pond, always a good place to see birds and now an area that has regular parrot fly-pasts (and hang-around-squawkings). It’s the only place we have found a furtive little sora creeping guiltily around the reedy margins. It’s a reliable spot for herons and egrets of all kinds, white-cheeked (bahama) pintails by the score, black-necked stilts and lesser yellowlegs. Occasionally a northern pintail. I’ve seen belted kingfishers, bahama woodstars, cuban emeralds, american kestrels, spindalis and many more coppice birds besides. Pelicans have been seen on the rocks on the beach. Always worth a try! One day perhaps I’ll make a checklist… **
A ‘Preening of Pintail’ with a lesser yellowlegs feeding happily (if blurrily) behind them
Less than a minute earlier… PHOTOBOMB
The photobomb was a complete surprise, but I managed to snap the more elegant landing…
** As a postscript, I see that Pericles Maillis posted on eBird his very brief bird count at Gilpin pond and on the beach a couple of days after I posted this. He saw
- 3 Blue-winged Teal (‘first sighting of bw teal for 2015 migration’)
- 20 White-cheeked (Bahama) Pintail
- 1 Great Blue Heron
- 1 Snowy Egret
- 2 Tricolored Heron
- 5 Green Heron
- 2 Killdeer
- 2 Ruddy Turnstone
- 10 Laughing Gull
- 1 Caribbean Dove
- 8 House Sparrow
Pics: RH
OUT FOR A DUCK: FINDING WHITE-CHEEKED (BAHAMA) PINTAILS ON ABACO
OUT FOR A DUCK: FINDING WHITE-CHEEKED (BAHAMA) PINTAILS ON ABACO
Hunt them. Then when you have found them, shoot them. But only with a camera, obviously… These attractive dabbling ducks are far too pretty for anything more controversial than watching and enjoying. Many moons ago I posted about them HERE, but I’m a bit cannier since then, and even have my own photos now…
NOTE Within hours of posting this, I was alerted (thanks, Tony W) to the inadvisability of (a) using the word ‘hunting’ in the title; and (b) the opening 2 sentences. (a) has been changed to the neutrally vanilla ‘finding’. (b) remain but with this warning: “It is illegal to shoot white-cheeked pintail in the Bahamas“. While I don’t imagine the readers of a blog like this will already have rushed to the gun cabinet, packed up a cartridge bag, added a couple of Kaliks and headed off with extreme pintail population decrease in mind, I expect a g**gle search for ‘hunting & shooting sweet small ducks’ could indeed provoke the odd (to very odd) person to assume it is open season for pintails. It isn’t. It never is.
The white-cheeked pintail Anas Bahamensis is also known as the Bahama Pintail. It is a gregarious species, often found in large numbers on lakes and ponds. An excellent place to see them on Abaco is at the pond by Hole 11 at Treasure Cay golf course. Don’t all rush at once – and if you do follow up the hint, check in at the Clubhouse to get permission – there may be a competition in progress… You’ll see many other waterbird species there, and I will do a follow-up post about them. Do mind your head – if someone yells ‘fore’ they will probably not be counting duck species.
The male and female of the species are very similar. However, in the image below there’s one bird that stands out from the others… and I don’t mean the American Coot. Near the bottom right is a LEUCISTIC variant of the Bahama Duck, a genetic condition similar to albinism.
Here is a close-up of the same duck on dry land. These variants are known as Silver Bahama Pintails. They are worth more than the standard version. You can see some good comparative pictures and find out more at MALLARD LANE FARMS
Here is a more extreme wiki-example of a silver bahama pintail
Another excellent place for pintails is in the Crossing Rocks area of South Abaco. Strictly, it is on private land. And legally too, for that matter. So I won’t pinpoint these pintails publicly. There is a wonderful variety of waterbird life there. I have seen great egrets, little blue herons, yellow-crowned night herons, belted kingfishers and elegant BLACK-NECKED STILTS there, besides several duck species. I have also seen a sora there (twice), a small, furtive rail that skulks in the reeds and foliage at the edge of the water, profoundly hoping that you won’t notice it… If you are birding on Abaco from Delphi, ask Peter or Sandy for the location. Or else contact me.
“On Reflection…”
BAHAMA (WHITE-CHEEKED) PINTAIL
THE BAHAMA(S) PINTAIL aka WHITE-CHEEKED PINTAIL Anas Bahamensis
This very pretty duck species is getting a mention not because I have ever seen one on Abaco, but because I have seen them at WWT Barnes in London. [Later note: see end of post – turns out it was at Pensthorpe Nature Reserve Norfolk]. We went there last weekend to photograph one for your (plural, not single reader I hope) exclusive pleasure, but sadly they haven’t got any at the moment – they have been moved to WWT Slimbridge. I’ve decided to post about them anyway. As ever, thanks to wiki for its handy conservation and classification label, plus basic species details which always get things off to a scientific-looking start before the nose-dive into amateurism…
There follow 2 open-use non-© images, with a dip of the beak to the anon photographers
BAHAMA PINTAILS 
The White cheeked Pintail or Bahama Pintail (Anas bahamensis) is a dabbling duck first listed by LINNAEUS in his Systema naturae in 1758, under its current scientific name.
There are three subspecies: A. b. bahamensis in the Caribbean (and vagrant in south Florida); A. b. galapagensis on the Galapagos; and the slightly larger A. b. rubirostris in South America. The sexes are similar. It is mainly brown with white cheeks and a red-based grey bill (young birds lack the pink). Conveniently for amateurs, it “cannot be confused with any other duck in its range” – though I’ll believe that when I have first-hand experience of personal non-muddle.
These ducks are found on saline waters such as brackish lakes, estuaries and mangrove swamps. They feed on aquatic plants and small creatures rootled out by dabbling. The nest is on the ground under vegetation and near water.
Mike Bergin, a naturalist, has very kindly let me use 2 of his wonderful images for this post. There are others to be found at CLICK==>> http://10000birds.com/white-cheeked-pintails.htm Indeed the whole site is well worth a good rummage around
Photo Credits Mike Bergin 1000 Birds
Here’s what they sound like (credit Xeno-Canto / George Armistead)
SPECIES LISTING (Jan 2012): This duck is on the threatened species list – not actually endangered but experiencing “moderate decline or facing imminent threats which warrant specific conservation measures”. Sadly, there are 3 separate causes of decline, each of which may be difficult to combat: habitat loss; hunting; and predation by introduced species.
Finally, here are links to more material about and images of these pretty ducks:
OISEAUX-BIRDS (an excellent resource for many other birds – merci Nicole for link approval)
BAHAMAS NATIONAL TRUST 2-page article on Pintails / Endangered birds
STOP PRESS To my complete surprise, I now discover that I have got my very own quite respectable picture of a Bahama Pintail, taken in July 2010 at the Pensthorpe Nature Reserve, Norfolk. So here it is…
STOP PRESS Feb 2012 Ricky Johnson, Abaco’s renowned bird expedition leader, has posted a fine example of a Bahama Pintail on his Facebook page, taken near his home. And, with permission (thanks, Ricky) here it is 
ROLLING HARBOUR ABACO 
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