Jeepers Creepers - Where'd You Get That Bill?

Welcoming the Northern Shoveler to Anguilla's Salt Ponds

Male Northern Shoveler in Fall Plumage - East End Pond

Considered a “rare visitor” to Anguilla, I last recorded a Northern Shoveler in eBird in 2019. That is until I found four females and two males, foraging on East End Pond.

Northern Shovelers East End Pond December 2024

This group of birds kept to the back of the pond and was not interested in posing for the paparazzi, thus the less-than-stellar photographs.

You can’t ignore that bill. It screams out to you from across the pond. A lot can be learned from their scientific name as Birds of the World describes:

“spatula

L. spatula spoon < dim. spatha spatula < Gr. σπαθη spathē spatula (cf. genus Spatula Boie, 1822, shoveler) (syn. Spatula clypeata).

clypeata / clypeatus

L. clipeatus or clypeatus shield-bearing, armed with a round shield < clipeare or clypeare to arm with a shield < clipeus, clupeus or clypeus round shield.”

The bill is useful for feeding as they forage for “small nektonic (swimming) invertebrates(insects and their larvae, molluscs, crustaceans), seeds, and plant remains.”

“Bill morphology adapted for straining food items from water (Table 1), often filtering water from surfacevideo (sweeping head side to sidevideo ). Also may swim occasionally with head under watervideo water or tip-upvideo or dive to feed under water (DuBowy 1985b, Tietje 1986). Like other shovelers, frequently observed feedingvideo in groups, stirring up water surface by swimming in tight rotating circlesvideo , but lone birds can also swim in tight circlesvideo to create whirlpool-like effect, to bring food to surface (Snow and Perrins 1998, Kear 2005). Forages mostly during day, but also at night, especially during full moon (PJD).”

It is easily distinguishable from our resident White-cheeked Pintails and their field identification is as follows:

“Medium-sized dabbling duck. Adult male about 50 cm total length, 550–800 g; adult female about 45 cm total length, 400–600 g (DuBowy 1980). As in other ducks, this species is sexually dimorphic and dichromatic. Large, distinctively-shaped billvideo is diagnostic over most of species’ range; elongated bill, widened distally and spatulate with a conspicuous series of comblike lamellae along lateral edge. In flight combination of green speculumphoto and pale blue upperwing-coverts contrasting with brown primaries and, in male, black backphoto with broad white braces is also useful; breeding malevideo is further distinguished by distinctive green, white, red and black pattern on underparts. Male has female-like eclipse plumage, but are characterized by a dark-brown/black head and neck, dark-brown breast and belly, and light-brown flanks (DuBowy 1985c). Orange legs; in non-breeding plumage is overall brown with paler fringes to feathers, greyer head and neck, and darker forehead and crown. Females and immature males resemble males in Basic plumage but are grayer overall. In all plumages, iris of adult male bright yellow, that of females and juveniles brown or yellow-brown. Juvenile resembles non-breeding female; blue patch is a muted blue-gray in female and juvenile Northern Shovelers. Compared to non-breeding female, juvenile darker and more uniform above, with a duller upperwing and more streaked underparts; young male has brighter wing pattern, whereas young female has smaller wing-coverts grey-brown and green speculum may be completely absent Kear 2005.”

Male Northern Shoveler Fall Plumage - Road Salt Pond (October 2019)

I normally see the males in their Fall plumage absent the dark green head of the breeding season. The orange legs and feet stand out even submerged. Seeing such a large group of both sexes was a real treat.

Northern Shoveler East End Pond

The eBird range map below shows how widespread this species is.

The map below shows the breeding range of the Northern Shoveler and non-breeding locations. If I had to guess where they came from, Florida would be the closest jumping-off point.

Waterfowl migration is described as follows:

“Some waterfowl migrate in fall before major cold crunches. Well-known examples include blue-winged teal, northern pintails, northern shovelers, gadwalls, wood ducks, canvasbacks, and ruddy ducks. However, cold, windy, and snowy fronts that lock up food and water stimulate major movements of cold-hardy waterfowl, such as mallards, American black ducks, large-bodied races of Canada geese, and certain sea ducks (e.g., goldeneyes, buffleheads, and long-tailed ducks).”

There does not appear to be much known or reported, about their migration to the Caribbean.

Northern Shovelers Resting With Shorebirds and Other Waterfowl - East End Pond

Perhaps the appearance of snow in North America pushed them to migrate. In the meantime, they seem content to feed and rest in Anguilla for a bit. I will enjoy them while they are here as they contribute to our Fall diversity.

Do you see Northern Shovelers in your neck of the woods? I would love to hear about it in the comments below.

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Citation

Dubowy, P. J., C. Carboneras, and G. M. Kirwan (2020).Northern Shoveler(Spatula clypeata), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA.https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.norsho.01

https://www.ducks.org/conservation/waterfowl-research-science/waterfowl-fall-migration