Northern Shoveler Facts

The northern shoveler is a duck of Asia, northern sections of Europe and North America. The bird takes its name from its broad bill, which possesses a distinct shovel shape. The northern shoveler inhabits shallow freshwater wetlands as well as saltwater marshes and places that hold brackish water.

  1. Size

    • The length of this medium-sized duck ranges from 17.3 inches to 20.1 inches, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website. The male can have a weight up to 35 oz., with the female smaller, between 17 and 28 oz.. The bill of the northern shoveler is about 2.5 inches long.

    Identification

    • The male northern shoveler has a gleaming green head, a black and white mix on the back, chestnut-colored wings and a white breast and belly region. The female northern shoveler is a mottled gray to brown mix of shades. The bill of the male is black, while that of the female duck is a greenish-olive color with yellow along the edges and the base.

    Function

    • The bill of the northern shoveler is typically much wider at its tip than at its base. The duck employs this feature to filter its meals from the water it strains through it. The bill has a series of teeth, as many as 110, resembling those of a comb. These lamellae work to allow water to flow out but keeps small creatures such as snails, insects and tiny invertebrates in the duck's mouth so it can eat them. Weeds, aquatic plants and an assortment of seeds round out the diet of this bird, reports the "National Audubon Society Field Guide to Birds."

    Geography

    • The summer breeding range of the northern shoveler extends east from much of Alaska through central portions of Canada. The bird breeds through the Great Lakes States and the Great Plains, as well as into the Rockies. While some northern shovelers stay year-round in parts of the coastal Pacific Northwest, most migrate south. The bird overwinters in parts of the Deep South, Texas, the Southwest and from Mexico into northern South America.

    Considerations

    • The female will lay anywhere from six to a dozen eggs in her nest, which she constructs near the water, usually in high vegetation. If the female takes flight to evade a predator, she will often defecate on the eggs. This action makes them less appealing to an enemy. The eggs eventually hatch after an incubation period of about 24 days. The young lack the distinct shovel-bill at first, but as time passes, the bill takes on the trademark look of the species.