Shoveler
size:
49-52 centimeters; 70-84 centimeters wingspan
color (adults):
male: dark green head, white breast, chestnut-brown belly and flank, pale blue forewings (seen in flight)
female: brown with white rimmed feathers, gray shoulders
food:
small crustaceans, snails, insect larvae, tadpoles, seeds and buds from water plants
Dutch status:
nesting bird; migratory, winter guest
habitat
open areas with shallow water
reproduction:
maturity: 1 year old
9-11 eggs
life span:
unknown (maximum known age: 31 years)
special nature:
spatula-like bill
- Dut: Slobeend
- Eng: (Northern) Shoveler
- Fren: Canard souchet
- Ger: Löffelente
- Dan: Skeand
- Nor: Skjeand
- Frisian: Slob
- Ital: Mestolone
- Lat: Anas clypeata
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- Shoveler, foto fitis, adriaan dijksen
Shoveler
You often see shovelers floating on the water with their head dunked in the water and their hind end pointed skywards. That's how they forage for food. They are true omnivores. They have an unusual beak, whereby the upper half extends over the lower half. This allows them to strain duckweed and aquatic animals out of the water. It is their strangely shaped bill which makes it easy to recognize them.
On Texel
Around 100 pairs of shovelers nest on Texel. You find them in the dunes and on farmlands. Hundreds of others pass by Texel during migration.
- Old age
- Shoveler female, foto fitis, adriaan dijksen
Shovelers can grow quite old. A specimen ringed as chick in the Eilandspolder in North-Holland on June 22 1970 was reported on June 18 2001 close to Anteguera (in southern Spain). The animal had been shot.
- Distribution and habitat
- Shovelers, foto fitis, adriaan dijksen
Those shovelers nesting birds in the Netherlands gather in September in the Lauwersmeer, delta and large river regions. They spend the winter in southern Europe and northern Africa.
- Protection
WWW
See also
Info
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