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A shoveler drake on the tack piece at Slimbridge Wetlands Centre, this was taken from the Stephen Kirk hide.
Northern Shoveler (Spatula clypeata), is a medium sized duck. Breeding males have dark green head, white breast, and chestnut sides and belly.
An adult male Australasian Shoveler (Kuruwhengi), Mawaihakona Stream, Upper Hutt, New Zealand. The Kuruwhengi is a specialist filter-feeder using its large shovel-shaped bill to gather water and force-filter through fine lamellae (membrane) that extend along the edge of the upper mandible.
This pair of Northern Shovelers were seen at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Florida.
The green-headed drake leads in this picture.
Perhaps the most outwardly distinctive of the dabbling ducks, the Northern Shoveler inhabits wetlands across much of North America. Its elongated, spoon-shaped bill has comblike projections along its edges, which filter out food from the water.
There were quite a few shovelers in New Mexico. They are easy to recognize by their large shnoz. (1) Speaking of their shnoz, I found this on Wikipedia: "Northern shovelers feed by dabbling for plant food, often by swinging its bill from side to side and using the bill to strain food from the water. They use their highly specialized bill (from which their name is derived) to forage for aquatic invertebrates. Their wide-flat bill is equipped with well-developed lamellae – small, comb-like structures on the edge of the bill that act like sieves, allowing the birds to skim crustaceans and plankton from the water's surface. This adaptation, more specialized in shovelers, gives them an advantage over other puddle ducks, with which they do not have to compete for food resources during most of the year. Thus, mud-bottomed marshes rich in invertebrate life are their habitat of choice.[14]"
This is a pic of the more colorful male, or drake in duck talk, taking off in the early morning at Bosque del Apache, NM. (Anas clypeata)
(1) From the web: Why is a nose called a schnoz? The word schnozzle may come from an alteration of the Yiddish shnoitsl, a diminutive of shnoits, from the German Schnauze, meaning “snout.” Several other nose-related Yiddish words begin with schn or shn, including shnabl and shnuk, both meaning “beak,” and shnoyts, meaning “snout.”
This shoveler couple was at the lake the other day; caught the in flight, but the thing that I noted was the light coming through their bills from the hole in the backside!
I visited Greenway on Sunday. The water level is alarmingly low, but the shovelers were still hanging around. Got several flight captures of these ducks.
A male shoveler showing off the curve of his bill in his reflection as he sails past.
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Northern shovelers look similar to mallards given just a glance since males have a green head and females are mottled brown, but then take a look at those large spatulate bills - that have a shovel shape. These lovely ducks will work their way out west into the Dakotas to nest.
This shoveler hen was making a quick transfer across the lake. I wasn't prepared for a flight shot, resulting in the wing motion. So, I'll call it artistic :)
Absolutely love it when you get perfectly calm water. It’s rare on lake Ontario but when you get some it’s magic.