In 1751 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the black-bellied whistling duck in the fourth volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds.

Edwards based his hand-coloured etching on a live bird kept at the home of Admiral Charles Wager in Chelsea, London.

The belly and tail are black, and the body plumage, back of the neck and cap are a rich chestnut brown.

[12] At the heart of their range, there is a tendency to travel in flocks over the winter months,[13] though this behavior is not a true long-range migration but rather local dispersal.

[11] In the 21st century, small numbers have been observed nesting in the Midwestern U.S., including Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin;[3] the species has also strayed to the eastern U.S. and Canada.

The habitat is quite shallow freshwater ponds, lakes, and marshes, cultivated land or reservoirs with plentiful vegetation, where this duck feeds mainly at night on seeds and other plant food.

They also make use of chimneys, abandoned buildings, or nest boxes, the latter having been increasingly provided to them over recent decades, especially in southeast Texas and Mexico.

Ducklings leap from nest cavities within two days of hatching, can feed themselves immediately, and stay with the parents for up to eight weeks.

Black-bellied whistling ducks ingest a wide variety of plant material (including corn, rice, millets, several types of weeds, and other grasses),[17] but also consume arthropods (such as insects and spiders),[17] aquatic invertebrates (such as snails and other molluscs) and tadpoles[17] when available.

The black-bellied whistling duck is listed as a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN); its global population is estimated at 1,100,000–2,000,000 birds and increasing.