Hello Birders, Regarding the whistling-duck at Bluffton: Of course there are other factors to consider as well, but I don't think that the bird's tameness is any strike against considering it a wild bird. In places where unquestionably wild Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks are common, such as Texas and Arizona, they seem to be among the waterfowl that adapt most quickly to the presence of humans. On the central Texas coast, it's not unusual to see flocks of BBWDs come flying in to backyard ponds, or waddling up onto lawns, waiting to be fed. They seem to "tame up" even more rapidly than park-pond Mallards in places where they're not molested. Interestingly, in some areas of the tropics where they are actively hunted, these whistling-ducks are extremely wary and hard to approach. In one heavily settled area of the llanos in Venezuela, I seldom saw whistling-ducks at all in daylight, when they seemed to be in hiding; I only heard them calling as they flew over at night! So this species seems to be able to adapt to different levels of disturbance, and its behavior may be only as wary as necessary. I don't see anything suspicious in the fact that the Bluffton bird became as approachable as its Mallard companions. Kenn Kaufman Oak Harbor, OH ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]