Northern shoveler

Northern Shoveler
Male
Female
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Anseriformes
Family:	Anatidae
Genus:	Anas (disputed)
Species:	A. clypeata
Binomial name
Anas clypeata Linnaeus, 1758
European distribution. Light green: summer only. Blue: winter only. Dark green: all-year.
Synonyms
Spatula clypeata (but see text)

The Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata), sometimes known simply as the Shoveler (Template:PronEng), is a common and widespread duck. It breeds in northern areas of Europe and Asia and across most of North America, and is a rare vagrant to Australia. In North America, it breeds along the southern edge of Hudson Bay and west of this body of water, and as far south as the Great Lakes west to Colorado, Nevada, and Oregon.

The Northern Shoveler is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies. The conservation status of this bird is Least Concern.

Taxonomy

This species was first described by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae in 1758 under its current scientific name. Usually placed in Anas like most dabbling ducks, it stands well apart from such species as the Mallard and together with the other shovelers and their relatives forms a "blue-winged" group that may warrant separation as genus Spatula.

No living subspecies are accepted today. Fossil bones of a very similar duck have been found in Early Pleistocene deposits at Dursunlu (Turkey). It is unresolved, however, how these birds were related to the Northern Shoveler of today; i.e. whether the differences noted were due to being a related species or paleosubspecies, or attributable to individual variation.

Description

Female stretching after bathing in Kolkata.

This species is unmistakable in the northern hemisphere due to its large spatulate bill. The breeding male has a green head, white breast and chestnut belly and flanks. In flight, pale blue forewing feathers are revealed, separated from the green speculum by a white border. In early fall the male will have a white crescent on each side of the face. In non-breeding (eclipse) plumage, the drake resembles the female.

The female is light brown, with plumage much like a female Mallard, but easily distinguished by the long broad bill, which is gray tinged with orange on cutting edge and lower mandible. The female's forewing is grey.

They are 19 inches long (48 cm) and have a wingspan of 30 inches (76 cm) with a weight of 1.3 pounds (600 g).

Behaviour

In flight.

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. It also eats mollusks and insects in the nesting season.

The nest is a shallow depression on the ground, lined with plant material and down, usually close to water.

This is a fairly quiet species. The male has a clunking call, whereas the female has a Mallard-like quack.

Habitat and range

This is a bird of open wetlands, such as wet grassland or marshes with some emergent vegetation.

This bird winters in southern Europe, Africa, northern South America, and the Malay Archipelago. In North America it winters south of a line from Washington to Idaho and from New Mexico east to Kentucky, also along the Eastern Seaboard as far north as Massachusetts. In the British Isles, home to more than 20% of the North Western European population, it is best known as a winter visitor, although it is more frequently seen in southern and eastern England, especially around the Ouse Washes, the Humber and the North Kent Marshes, and in much smaller numbers in Scotland and western parts of England. In winter, breeding birds move south, and are replaced by an influx of continental birds from further north.

This dabbling duck is strongly migratory and winters further south than its breeding range (so far so that there have been four reports in Australia). It is not as gregarious as some dabbling ducks outside the breeding season and tends to form only small flocks.

References

• AEWA "Annex 2: Waterbird species to which the Agreement applies" (PDF). Agreement on the conservation of African-Eurasian migratory Waterbirds (AEWA). AEWA. Retrieved 2008-01-13.
• Clements, James, (2007) The Clements Checklist of the Birds of the World, Cornell University Press, Ithaca
• Dunn, J. & Alderfer, J. (2006) National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America 5th Ed.
• Floyd, T (2008) Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America Harper Collins, NY
• IUCN (2009) BirdLife International Anas clypeata Downloaded on 08 Jan 2009
• Linnaeus, C (1758). Systema naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio A. rostri extremo dilatato rotundato, ongue incurvo. decima, reformata. Holmiae. (Laurentii Salvii). p. 124. A. macula alarum rufa nigra alba..Template:La icon
• Louchart, Antoine; Mourer-Chauviré, Cécile; Guleç, Erksin; Howell, Francis Clark & White, Tim D. (1998): L'avifaune de Dursunlu, Turquie, Pléistocène inférieur: climat, environnement et biogéographie. C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris IIA 327(5): 341-346.doi:10.1016/S1251-8050(98)80053-0Template:Fr icon

External links

• RSPB A to Z of UK Birds
• Northern Shoveler Information and Photos at South Dakota Birds and Birding
• Northern Shoveler Information at Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• Northern Shoveler at USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
• Massachusetts Breeding Bird Atlas
• Northern Shoveler videos, photos & sounds on the Internet Bird Collection

Gallery

• 
  Male in Kolkata.
• 
  Male near Hodal
• 
  Photographed at Bosque del Apache NWR, NM.
• 
  resting at Sultanpur National Park
• 
  in Uppalapadu, Andhra Pradesh, India.