Australasian Shoveler

Male
Photo © by Tony Brown
Lake Monger, Perth, Australia

Spatula rhynchotis

Identification

46-56cm

• Long, spatulate bill

Male

• Blue-grey head, with a vertical white crescent
• Chestnut sides
• Blue forewing
• White underwing shows in flight
  

Female

• Overall rufous-brown plumage, with darker streaks on upperparts
• Buffish feather edges

Female
Photo © by Neil
Sydney,Australia, February 2004

Distribution

Australasia: found in south-western and south-eastern Australia; Tasmania, and New Zealand.

Taxonomy

This is a monotypic species.
Formerly placed in the genus Anas.

Habitat

A wide variety of wetlands; prefers large permanent lakes or swamp that have abundant shrubbery cover of melaleuca and cumbungi.
Only an infrequent user of mangrove swamps, floodwaters, sewage farms.

Behaviour

Diet

The diet includes a wide variety of vegetable matter: herbs, grasses, pondweeds, wigeon grass, eelgrass, and algae.

Breeding

Seven or eight eggs are laid and incubated for 25-26 days; the young fledge after 40-45 days.

Gallery

Click on photo for larger image

• 

  Eclipse
  Photo © by the late Rookery
  Cape Kidnappers, New Zealand, November 2008

• 

  Sub Adult or Non breeding Male
  Photo © by aussietrev
  Queensland, Australia, June 2009

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2017. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2017, with updates to August 2017. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Avibase
3. Animal Bytes
4. BF Member observations

• Arthur Grosset's Birds
• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Australasian Shoveler. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 21 May 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Australasian_Shoveler

External Links

Search for photos of Australasian Shoveler in the gallery