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Urban Wetland Damage Threatens White-Faced Whistling-Duck Habitat in Harare

Wild white-faced whistling duck standing at a wetland edge in South Africa
Conservation · Threats

A short communication published in June 2026 revisited a nesting record of white-faced whistling-duck (Dendrocygna viduata) beside a tributary of the Gwebi River in Vainona, Harare. The nest had been found in December 2007 on a vegetated bank. At the time, the tributary was less than one metre deep and about one to two metres wide, and the observers recorded only one nesting bird along an extensive stretch of the stream.

When approached, the duck took off slowly and heavily, gave a high-pitched whistle and landed in a cultivated maize patch. The observers inspected the nest only through binoculars rather than moving closer. They could see that it was built from reeds and grass, but they did not determine how many eggs it contained.

The 2026 note contrasts that earlier setting with the wetland’s present condition. Ross G. Cooper reports significant pollution, rubbish and discarded construction material causing substantial ecosystem damage. He concludes that these urban pressures threaten both nesting and feeding habitat for white-faced whistling-ducks and can push the species away from city wetlands towards more distant farm dams or areas beyond the city.

Sources and image credit

  1. Cooper, R. G. (2026). A White-faced Whistling Duck Breeding in an Urban Wetland. Honeyguide, 72(1), 21.Primary short communication in the June 2026 issue. It documents a December 2007 nest beside a Gwebi River tributary in Vainona, Harare, and contrasts the former habitat with present pollution, rubbish and construction debris.

Image: Andy Morffew / Wikimedia Commons / Flickr — wild white-faced whistling-duck (Dendrocygna viduata) in South Africa, photographed 20 January 2023; representative image, not the Harare nesting bird · CC BY 2.0 · Source

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