On July 18, 2025 I was with Judy and my granddaughter, Ella, on an excursion in a wooden boat in the Mabamba Swamp on Lake Victoria in Uganda. Our guide, Wilson, was in the front of the boat and Ella was also in front of me. Wilson identified a yellow-billed duck in front of us and I had a hard time getting a clear view of the duck between Wilson and Ella. I got a couple of photos stretching out over the side of the boat to avoid them but my focus was blurry and the duck flew before we were able to get close enough for a better shot.
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| Yellow-billed duck illustration from Birds of the World. |
They are mainly brownish gray with a darker head and bright yellow bill with a large black triangle on the upper mandible. They also have a green-blue speculum. The sexes are similar. There are two subspecies. Ssp. ruepelli, the northern yellow-billed duck, and the nominate ssp., undulata, the southern yellow-billed duck. I saw the northern yellow-billed duck, found in South Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, northern Kenya and Uganda, although Birds of the World indicates there are no recent records of it there, although Wilson did not indicate any surprise in seeing it. A separate note in Birds of the World states that it is very common in southern Africa with more scattered populations towards the north of its range.
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| They are non-migratory and found in southern and eastern Africa. |
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