The Torrent Duck: My Most Wanted Bird Remains An Enigma

Header image by Alejandro Bayer Tamayo, distributed under CC BY-SA 2.0

If a duck quacks in the forest and no one hears it, does it still exist?

This is one question I have been pondering since I left Ecuador. Because to me, the bird I most wanted to see on my recent trip, the Torrent Duck, remains a mystery to me. There is evidence of it, surely, but until I lay eyes upon it, does it really exist?

This is the heart-wrenching story of me just missing out on seeing my most wanted bird of 2022.

The Duck In Question

So, what is a Torrent Duck anyways, and why is it so special?

Well… I may be a total bird nerd and think all birds are cool, but this one is surely to make even casual birders geek out about.

Just imagine… you are in the middle of a dense and mountainous forest, and you come across a raging river. The river’s relentless current crashes against a series of boulders that jut out of the water’s surface, creating a turbulent dance of water that leaps over the slippery rocks. You know if you even stepped a foot in the rapids, you would be at the mercy of the current and get swept away in an instant.

The perfect place for a duck.

Well, only a specific kind of duck. Most ducks prefer a tranquil pool of shallow water where they can leisurely paddle around and munch on algae. 

But the Torrent Duck may be a bit of an adrenaline junkie, because it chooses the most chaotic and dangerous place to call its home. It is such a strange environment for a bird, that only a few other ducks have ever adapted to this fast-flowing stream environment.

Watch this dramatic story of a baby Torrent Duck trying to keep up with its parents in the rapids:

Now imagine you are at this river, pondering a way to cross without getting swept away, when out comes this amazing black-and-white duck, swimming upstream against the current. His movements through the rapids are as effortless as if he had a motor attached to it. He scales the falls with ease and jumps up onto a slippery boulder over twice its height, joyfully flicking his tail.

His mate follows shortly after, boasting a completely different color pattern. She is a warm cinnamon brown, with a smoky-gray head and back, and a bright orange bill. This amazing athlete swims up the rapids with just as much skill, diving down under the water to glean aquatic insects off the rocks. 

She joins her mate on the colossal boulder, springing out of the rapids with effortless agility. There they stand in the middle of the torrent, unabashed and at complete ease in the watery turmoil.

This is the Torrent Duck. 

Or… at least so I’ve heard. I’ve never actually seen them.

In Search of the Torrent Duck

When I learned I would be doing bird research in the Torrent Duck’s preferred habitat, in the Andes mountains right next to a narrow raging river, I thought it was a no-brainer I would be seeing this bird on the regular.

During my time at Reserva las Tangaras, we had to cross the river on a bridge nearly every day. Every time I was near the river, I would conduct a sweep for any duck-like shapes in the rapids. 

A few days had passed and I had seen some other cool streamside species, Torrent Tyrannulets and White-capped Dippers, but no duck. The Reserve Manager at the time, Rushi, assured me he had seen some Torrent Ducks and that I was bound to see some if I kept looking. 

Then there were reports of a pair of Torrent Ducks in the same section of rapids I had been searching days prior.

“Just go out at around 5 by that one lookout by the magical hummingbird tree,” Nick assured me. “I’ve seen them there twice already.”

Eben saw them in a different spot on the river just by chance. “Yeah, we were just hanging out by the river when we saw one just swim right past us. When it saw us it hid behind a rock and started poking its head out to watch us. It was pretty cute.”

Dang it, I wanted to see the cuteness for myself. 

The Allure of Porch Birding

Over halfway through the study and I still had not seen one. 

No problem, I thought to myself. I’ve just been busy with the study, I’ll do some afternoon birding by the river the next few days until I find one. 

Of course then it started raining nearly every afternoon until the end of the trip. And I caught a minor cold too, which definitely made me not want to go out in the rain on a wild duck chase.

So I was content doing some porch birding while I got over my cold, instead of going out in the downpour to find mixed flocks like a certain few crazy birders in the group. There were still plenty of amazing birds to be seen from the porch, although the Torrent Duck would not be one of them.

Before I knew it, we were on the last full day of the trip, and I think almost everyone saw this mystical duck but me. 

I was starting to think it didn’t even exist.

My last few days I brought a few willing participants with me to go scour the areas of the river where the duck sightings had been. It was raining of course, so we brought our umbrellas and sat right by the river… waiting. 

After that didn’t work, we checked out the spot by the mystical hummingbird tree at 5, hoping one would show. 

Still nothing. 

In fact, I was so intent on seeing this duck, one of the coolest birds of the entire trip flew right behind me while I was sitting on the river. I missed the Long-wattled Umbrellabird, but honestly I was more interested in seeing this duck.

The Final Sighting

It was finally the day to leave, and I had resigned myself that I guess seeing the Torrent Duck wasn’t in the cards for me this trip. I had my bags all packed, my giant backpack on my back and my daypack in the front, ready to go. 

I decided to stay behind to say goodbye to the staff, but a few others ran ahead to drop their bags off first.

Not soon after we were done with the goodbyes, Eben came running up the hill, out of breath.

“We just saw a Torrent Duck fly right under us on the bridge.” 

I could not believe it. If I had crossed the bridge a few minutes earlier, I would have seen the Torrent Duck at the very last possible second I could have seen it. My most wanted bird could have been my penultimate sighting in Ecuador. 

What a wonderful end to the story that would have been. 

But instead, I found myself screaming, “Are you kidding me?!” And running down the hill with my bags to try to see if I could get a glimpse of it. I stood on the bridge and scanned the edges, hoping that I would see a little head peek out from behind a rock.

I scanned the river for quite a while, but the duck had gone. 

Nevertheless, I saw some amazing birds on this trip. Lots of Chocó endemics, fairly rare birds, North American migrants, and stunningly colorful tropical species. I even saw 2 mammals I didn’t know existed before I saw them steal bananas from the bird feeders, a Tayra and an Agouti. I also saw a super rare and mythical frog, the Blue-thighed Rainfrog. 

I’m sure I will go back to the Andes of South America sometime again, and I will make sure I don’t miss this amazing duck of the mountainous rapids. 

Because I can look at pictures or videos all day long, but seeing it with my own 2 eyes will be magical.