Birdwatching - 2018 🐦

🦉 The northern shoveler (Spatula clypeata)

• Spatula (lat.) spoon, blade (about the beak)
• clypeata lat.: clypeus shield, barrier, clypeatus having a shield

These ducks are not common in my city. They are very similar to the common mallards, but have a wider and longer beak.
As you know, the shape of a bird’s beak indicates its type of nutrition. And this duck is carnivorous, its diet includes various marine mollusks, crustaceans, aquatic insects, snails and sometimes small fish.

Just like the mallard, there is pronounced sexual dimorphism. The male has contrasting plumage, a dark green head, and red spots on the sides. And the females are similar in appearance to female mallards.