The male is very colourful with a dark bottle-green head, a white breast and bright red-brown chestnut coloured under-parts. The black-brown back has a shiny blue effect. It can sometimes be mistaken for a mallard but its large bill makes it distinctive. When the Shoveler is flying, the light blue patch on its wing is visible. In the late summer, the drake loses his finery, and goes into ‘eclipse plumage’ after moulting. Both sexes are then mottled brown, although the drake can be identified by a white streak just in front of his eye. Immature birds are similar in appearance to birds in this eclipse phase but are slightly darker.

The Shoveler is a very large Duck, almost as big as the Mallard with a Wing span of 9-10 inches and it weighs from 17 to 35 ounces and a length of 51 cm.

Food

Shovelers are surface feeing ducks. They use their large flat beaks to filter small animals and seeds out of the water. It moves its beak over the surface of the water or through runny mud. The beak contains a fine filtering system which allows the water to leak out but traps bits of animal and plant food. Their food is tiny shellfish, insects and their larvae and plants. They use other feed techniques including dabbling and diving as well as their surface feeding techniques. Shovelers rarely ‘up-end’ like mallard and other surface-feeding ducks. However, they will dive if disturbed

Distribution

The Shoveler is spread in temperate zones of Europe, Asia and North America. They are found in open woodland and grassland where there are shallow fresh-water food-rich lakes and ponds on which they can feed. They can also be found on fens and marshes with plenty of open water

Many Shovelers pass through Britain on their way to somewhere else and do not stay for long. Others visit for summer or winter. A few Shovelers stay in Britain all year long, and breed here, from April to May. In Britain they breed 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 the arrival of continental birds from further north. The UK is home to more than 20% of the NW European population.

Shovelers have their principal strongholds in the Netherlands (14,000 breeding pairs) and Russia (perhaps 80,000 breeding pairs) but around 1,500 pairs breed in Britain.

Birds that have bred in Iceland winter in Britain and birds that bred in Britain winter in France and Spain.

Breeding

As with most other ducks, after mating the male plays no further part in the incubation of the eggs and rearing of the ducklings. In April or May, the female builds a nest on dry ground. The nest will be hidden amongst reeds in the water at the water’s edge or in a meadow. The duck lines it with down from her own breast. She can lay as many as 12 buff-coloured eggs and incubation takes 24 days.  The eggs will be greenish-grey in colour. The female leads them away from the nest as soon as they have hatched. The ducklings feed on small insects and other invertebrates, as well as plant seeds and buds.

Sexual maturity occurs at one year of age. In the months outside of the breeding season, they do not bond with members of the opposite sex. Their mating is yearly and they do not necessarily re-mate with mates of the previous year. When the male and female Shoveler court, they energetically nod their heads at each other.

Call

The male makes a low “took took” sound, while the female quacks just like a Mallard.