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Anas clypeatanorthern shoveler

By Kelly Johnson

Ge­o­graphic Range

North­ern shov­el­ers (Anas clypeata) has a very broad ge­o­graph­i­cal range. They breed through­out Eura­sia and west­ern North Amer­ica. They are also found in the Great Lakes re­gion of the east­ern United States. In win­ter var­i­ous pop­u­la­tions mi­grate south to spe­cific lo­ca­tions, scat­tered through­out north-east Africa, India, South­ern China and Japan to Mex­ico and south­ern North Amer­ica. (Soothill and White­head, 1988)

Habi­tat

Dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son, North­ern Shov­el­ers are found in shal­low pools and marshes that have good cover and dry areas nearby for nest­ing. In the win­ter they can be found near fresh­wa­ter marshes, swamps, and flooded areas. (Johns­gard 1965.)

  • Aquatic Biomes
  • lakes and ponds

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Males weigh 17 to 38 ounces(470 to 1000g) and their wingspans are usu­ally around 31 inches(227 to 251mm). Fe­males are 17 to 28 ounces(470 to 800g). North­ern Shov­el­ers are sex­u­ally di­mor­phic. The males head, neck, and specu­lum are iri­des­cent green, their chests are white, and the re­main­ing un­der­parts are a bright chest­nut. The fe­males are mainly a pat­tern of buffs and browns. Both sexes have pale blue inner forewings and or­ange-yel­low legs and feet. The most dis­tinc­tive fea­ture is their large spat­u­late bill. It is twice as wide at the tip than it is at the base. This uniquely shaped bill gives rise to North­ern Shov­el­ers also being called "spoon­bills". The duck­lings hatch with a typ­i­cal duck­bill that en­larges as the duck­ling ma­tures. (Goodes and Boyer, 1986; Todd, 1979)

  • Range mass
    470 to 1000 g
    16.56 to 35.24 oz
  • Average basal metabolic rate
    3.9209 W
    AnAge

Re­pro­duc­tion

Breed­ing usu­ally takes place from April until June. Nests are made on dry land close to fresh water and they are built of grasses and lined with down feath­ers. The fe­male builds the nest by form­ing a neat cup by twist­ing her body on the ground. She lays be­tween 9 and 11 eggs. The eggs are olive col­ored and 52x37mm. In­cu­ba­tion by the fe­male alone be­gins im­me­di­ately after all the eggs are laid and can last 23 to 25 days. (Dobkin, Ehrlich and Wheye, 1988.) (Soothill and White­head, 1978.)

  • Range eggs per season
    9 to 11
  • Average eggs per season
    11
    AnAge
  • Average time to hatching
    23 days
    AnAge

The male loses in­ter­est soon after in­cu­ba­tion starts. The duck­lings are born pre­co­cial and start fol­low­ing the fe­male al­most im­me­di­ately. Feed­ing prac­tices and lo­ca­tions are learned dur­ing this time. They young can fly after 40 to 45 days and are then in­de­pen­dent.

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Be­hav­ior

North­ern Shov­el­ers stay in small groups of up to twenty, but they may travel in larger num­bers dur­ing mi­gra­tion. They are quiet birds that tol­er­ate human pres­ence and can be rel­a­tively tame. (Todd, 1979.)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Food Habits

A North­ern Shov­eler feeds mainly by draw­ing water into its bill and then pump­ing it out through the sides with their tongue, fil­ter­ing out minute food par­ti­cles with long comb-like lamel­lae that line the edge of the bill. The par­ti­cles mainly con­sist of tiny crus­taceans, mol­luscs, in­sects, and their lar­vae as well as seeds and pieces of leaves and stems of plants. In ad­di­tion to the food par­ti­cles they also eat water bee­tles, small min­nows, and snails. So­cial feed­ing is com­mon. The shov­el­ers are drawn to feed­ing areas by other birds feed­ing in an area. Shov­el­ers take ad­van­tage of the food par­ti­cles churned to the sur­face by the other birds swim­ming or wad­ing in the area. Sin­gle birds may swim in a tight cir­cle to cre­ate a whirlpool to cause food to come to the sur­face. Shov­el­ers are also known to upend or dab­ble, usu­ally for length­ier pe­ri­ods than other sur­face feed­ers, and also dive using their wings to swim un­der­wa­ter in shal­low marshes. (Good­ers and Boyer, 1986, Johns­gard, 1969, Todd, 1979)

  • Animal Foods
  • terrestrial non-insect arthropods
  • mollusks
  • aquatic or marine worms
  • aquatic crustaceans

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

North­ern Shov­el­ers are a game bird. Hunters often shoot them due to their re­sem­blance to mal­lards. They are often re­ferred to as "neigh­bor's mal­lards," be­cause some hunters give them to their neigh­bors and keep the more tasty mal­lards for them­selves. (Todd, 1979.)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

None found.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

The pop­u­la­tion in North Amer­ica ap­pears to be in­creas­ing. (Todd, 1979,) (Wcmc.​org, July 10, 2000.) This species is pro­tected under the U.S. Mi­gra­tory Bird Act.

Other Com­ments

North­ern Shov­el­ers are very pop­u­lar with avi­cul­tur­ists, are rather easy to prop­a­gate, and can be found in al­most any wa­ter­fowl col­lec­tion. (Todd 1979.)

Con­trib­u­tors

Kelly John­son (au­thor), Fresno City Col­lege, Carl Jo­hans­son (ed­i­tor), Fresno City Col­lege.

Glossary

Nearctic

living in the Nearctic biogeographic province, the northern part of the New World. This includes Greenland, the Canadian Arctic islands, and all of the North American as far south as the highlands of central Mexico.

World Map

Palearctic

living in the northern part of the Old World. In otherwords, Europe and Asia and northern Africa.

World Map

acoustic

uses sound to communicate

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

carnivore

an animal that mainly eats meat

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

endothermic

animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.

filter-feeding

a method of feeding where small food particles are filtered from the surrounding water by various mechanisms. Used mainly by aquatic invertebrates, especially plankton, but also by baleen whales.

forest

forest biomes are dominated by trees, otherwise forest biomes can vary widely in amount of precipitation and seasonality.

insectivore

An animal that eats mainly insects or spiders.

iteroparous

offspring are produced in more than one group (litters, clutches, etc.) and across multiple seasons (or other periods hospitable to reproduction). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, survive over multiple seasons (or periodic condition changes).

migratory

makes seasonal movements between breeding and wintering grounds

molluscivore

eats mollusks, members of Phylum Mollusca

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

oriental

found in the oriental region of the world. In other words, India and southeast Asia.

World Map

oviparous

reproduction in which eggs are released by the female; development of offspring occurs outside the mother's body.

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

social

associates with others of its species; forms social groups.

tactile

uses touch to communicate

tropical savanna and grassland

A terrestrial biome. Savannas are grasslands with scattered individual trees that do not form a closed canopy. Extensive savannas are found in parts of subtropical and tropical Africa and South America, and in Australia.

savanna

A grassland with scattered trees or scattered clumps of trees, a type of community intermediate between grassland and forest. See also Tropical savanna and grassland biome.

temperate grassland

A terrestrial biome found in temperate latitudes (>23.5° N or S latitude). Vegetation is made up mostly of grasses, the height and species diversity of which depend largely on the amount of moisture available. Fire and grazing are important in the long-term maintenance of grasslands.

visual

uses sight to communicate

young precocial

young are relatively well-developed when born

Ref­er­ences

1999. "United States En­dan­gered Species Act" (On-line). Ac­cessed Ju­ly10, 2000 at http://​www.​wcmc.​org.​UK.

Dobkin, E., D. Wheye. 1988. The Birder’s Hand­book. Simon and Schus­ter Inc.

Far­rand, J. 1988. An Audubon Hand­book West­ern Birds. New York, N.Y.: Mc­Graw-Hill Book Com­pany.

Good­ers, J., T. Boyer. 1986. Ducks of North Amer­ica and the North­ern Hemi­sphere. New York, N.Y.: Dragon's World.

Johns­gard, P. 1965. Hand­book of Wa­ter­fowl Be­hav­ior. Cor­nell Uni­ver­sity.

Rob­bins, C., B. Bruun, H. Zim. 1983. A Guide to Field Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion. Racine, Wis­con­sin: West­ern Pub­lish­ing Com­pany, Inc..

Soothill, E., P. White­head. 1978. Wild­fowl of the World. Blan­ford Press Ltd..

Todd, F. 1979. Wa­ter­fowl, Ducks, Geese, and Swans of the World. Sea­world Inc..

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Classification

  • Kingdom Animalia animals
  • Phylum Chordata chordates
  • Subphylum Vertebrata vertebrates
  • Class Aves birds
  • Order Anseriformes ducks, geese, swans, and relatives
  • Family Anatidae ducks, geese, and swans
  • Genus Anas dabbling ducks and teals
  • Species Anas clypeata northern shoveler