#17: Fulvous Whistling Duck

I learned a new word today, which I had to look up in the dictionary after I drew this one out of the Bird Jar: Fulvous, meaning a brownish-yellow, or tawny color. I guess that word (which I swear I have never heard before, even in the art world) pretty aptly describes this ducky that we haven't seen in a few years since first spotting it in a park in Scottsdale in January 2007. My Smithsonian bird book calls this one of the most widely distributed waterfowl in the world, but we sure don't get many here in central Arizona. As I recall, Randy and I made a special trip to see this duck, along with some rare geese which had stopped by on their migration. That was a fun day, I think on that one day we added something like 5 new birds to our list, which is big for us!

At any rate, here is the Fulvous Whistling Duck. I just love it when Randy scores a photo of birds cocking their heads at us like this: