Are northern shovelers rare?
The northern shoveler (/ˈʃʌvələr/; Spatula clypeata), known simply in Britain as the shoveler, is a common and widespread duck.
Are northern shovelers diver ducks?
Examples of dabbling ducks include Mallards, Northern Shovelers, Wood Ducks, Green-winged Teals, Blue-winged Teals, Gadwalls, and Northern Pintails (to name a few). Examples of diving ducks include Canvasbacks, Scaups, Ring-necked Ducks, Ruddy Ducks, American Wigeons, and Redheads (to name a few).
What does a shoveler look like?
Shovelers are surface feeing ducks with huge spatulate bills. Males have dark green heads, with white breasts and chestnut flanks. Females are mottled brown. In flight birds show patches of light blue and green on their wings.
Is a shoveler a puddle duck?
Puddle ducks, also known as dabbler ducks, are ducks that feed primarily in shallow water and that do not dive beneath the water’s surface. Mallards, teal, wood ducks, widgeons, gadwalls, pintails, and shovelers are all puddle ducks.
How big is a northern shoveler?
1.4 lbs
Northern shoveler/Mass
Are northern shovelers monogamous?
Northern Shovelers are monogamous and remain together longer than pairs of most other dabbling ducks. They form bonds on the wintering grounds and stay together until just before fall migration. When flushed off the nest, a female Northern Shoveler often defecates on its eggs, apparently to deter predators.
Where do shovelers nest?
Male remains with female longer than in most ducks, often through part of incubation period. Nest site is usually close to water, generally in area of short grass. Nest (built by female) is a shallow depression partly filled with dried grasses and weeds, lined with down.
Is a northern shoveler a spoonbill?
A male northern shoveler walks across ice at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Dorchester County, Md. Nicknamed the spoonbill, the northern shoveler is a medium-sized dabbling duck with a distinctive shovel- or spoon-shaped bill. This duck is sometimes confused with the mallard (Anas platyrhynchos).
What kind of Duck is a shoveler duck?
It is a medium-sized duck that tends to sit with its rear a bit higher out of the water almost like its bill is pulling its front half down. Larger than an American Coot, smaller than a Mallard. Breeding male shovelers are bold white, blue, green, and rust, but their most notable feature is their white chest and white lower sides.
What kind of body does a northern shoveler have?
Male northern shovelers have an iridescent green head and neck, white chest and breast and chestnut belly and sides. They have a white stripe extending from the breast along the margin of the gray-brown back, and white flank spots.
How did the northern shoveler get its name?
The Northern Shoveler, Anas clypeata, is so named because of its large distinctive spoon-shaped bill – black in the drake and brown in the hen. The drake has a green head and neck, a white breast, brown sides and pale blue shoulder patches. The hen is buff and light brown with grayish shoulder patches.
What kind of Bill does a northern shoveler have?
Their very large orange bill is their most notable field mark. Northern Shovelers often have their heads down in shallow wetlands, busily sweeping their bills side to side, filtering out aquatic invertebrates and seeds from the water. This opens in a new window.