page_title: Lesser whistling duck
section_title: Behaviour and ecology
hierarchical_section_title: Lesser whistling duck / Behaviour and ecology
caption_attribution_description: English: Lesser-whistling Duck (Dendrocygna javanica) in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
context_page_description: The lesser whistling duck, also known as Indian whistling duck or lesser whistling teal, is a species of whistling duck that breeds in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. They are nocturnal feeders that during the day may be found in flocks around lakes and wet paddy fields. They can perch on trees and sometimes build their nest in the hollow of a tree. This brown and long-necked duck has broad wings that are visible in flight and produces a loud two-note wheezy call. It has a chestnut rump, differentiating it from its larger relative, the fulvous whistling duck, which has a creamy white rump.
context_section_description: Lesser whistling duck are usually gregarious. They feed mainly on plants taken from the water as well as grains from cultivated rice apart from small fish, frogs and invertebrates such as molluscs and worms. They dabble as well as dive in water. They will often waddle on the land and Common mynas have been noted to follow them on grass. Courtship involves the male facing the female and dipping and raising its bill in the water and swimming around the female. They breed during the monsoon or rainy season and may vary locally in relation to the food availability. The nest site may be a tree hole lined with twigs and grass or built in the fork of a large tree, sometimes reusing an old nest of a kite or heron or even on the ground. The clutch varies from 7 to 12 white eggs that are incubated by both the parents. Large clutches of up to 17 have been noted although these may be indications of intraspecific brood parasitism. The eggs hatch after about 22–24 days. More than one brood may be raised in a single season. Young birds may sometimes be carried on the back of the parents.
  Local names like sili and silhahi in India are based on their wheezy two-note calls. They become very tame in captivity, walking about and responding to whistles. Individuals in captivity in the USA have lived for up to 9 years.
  Several endoparasitic cestodes including Hymenolepis javanensis and Cittotaenia sandgroundi have been described from lesser whistling duck hosts apart from ectoparasitic bird lice and mites.
caption: A flock landing (Kolkata, India)
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