I admit I have a soft spot for hawks, especially when a hawk is as handsome as this guy. Think he knows he's a hunk?
Photo copy/pasted. He flew too fast for me to photo. This guy flew through my back yard this morning, landed way up in a big water oak tree and commenced to chatter, or should I say: " loudly whistle-hollered", to another one roosted in a tree in the yard just south of me. Big guy and called the Black Bellied Whistling Duck. I saw one last fall in my Red Oak tree. You just can't miss that vibrant orange beak. They live in Swamplands, (we have plenty of those around) and eat grains. They even forage at night.
Anniekay, we rarely have those ducks, but one day on the way to the barn I saw two, perched on the roof of the shed. Your photo is better, but this one shows the pink legs! (I was accused of photo shopping the leg color!).
They call the beak and legs, in some descriptions, as pink but I think it varies by the duck just how much pink coloration comes through. It is, sometimes, that what they eat contruibutes to their color. Like how swamp racoons are almost black on their topline and wood raccoons are a lighter color. Just my thoughts on that.
Anniekay, "you are what you eat" also applies to flamingos. A nearby zoo feeds shrimp to their flamingos to keep them pink. If they don't, the flamingos become a sickly shade of beige!
