From a distance, the extra-long bill of the shoveler (Anas rhynchotis) gives it away as not your usual grey/mallard duck. From the front (sorry, couldn’t get close enough), the bill has a strong spoon-like appearance. Not the soup spoon of the royal spoonbill, more like a dessert spoon. Anyway, these guys feed by filtering water and mud through their bills. The female looks a lot like a grey duck or mallard female, but the bill is the giveaway. The markings on males, though, are distinctive, with their yellow eyes, blue-grey head and white stripe along the edge of the bill. Whenever I’ve seen a shoveler, there’s been only one bird, so I’ve formed this theory that there’s just one shoveler that moves all around the country. Such a lone shoveler would be very old. But nzbirdsonline.org.nz has photos of multiple shovelers, together, disproving that theory.
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