Cape shoveler
| Cape shoveler | |
|---|---|
| |
| Male | |
| |
| Female | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Anseriformes |
| Family: | Anatidae |
| Genus: | Spatula |
| Species: | S. smithii
|
| Binomial name | |
| Spatula smithii Hartert, 1891
| |
| Synonyms | |
|
Anas smithii (Hartert, 1891) | |
The Cape shoveler
dabbling duck of the genus Spatula. It is resident in South Africa, and uncommon further north in Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, southern Angola, Lesotho, Mozambique, and Zambia.[1][2]
This 51–53 cm long
gregarious
when not breeding, and may then form large flocks.
This species has a large spatulate bill. Adults have speckled grey-brown plumage and dull orange legs. As with many southern hemisphere ducks, the sexes appear similar, but the male has a paler head than the female, a pale blue forewing separated from the green speculum by a white border, and yellow eyes. The female's forewing is grey.
Cape shoveler can only be confused with a vagrant female northern shoveler, but is much darker and stockier than that species.[2]
It is a bird of open wetlands, such as wet grassland or marshes with some
nesting season. The nest
is a shallow depression on the ground, lined with plant material and down, and usually close to water.
This is a fairly quiet species. The male has rarr and cawick calls, whereas the female has a quack.[2]
The Cape shoveler was
zoologist Andrew Smith.[5]
The
least concern.[1]
Footnotes
- ^ . Retrieved 25 September 2021.
- ^ ISBN 978-1408138953.
- ^ Hartert, Ernst (1891). Katalog der Vogelsammlung im Museum der Senckenbergischen naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Frankfurt-am-Main (in German). Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany: Knauer. p. 231, note.
- ^ Mayr, Ernst; Cottrell, G. William, eds. (1979). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 1 (2nd ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 479.
- ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
References
- Madge, & Burn, Wildfowl ISBN 0-7470-2201-1
- Sinclair, Ian, Hockey, Phil, and Tarboton, Warwick SASOL Birds of Southern Africa (Struik 2002) ISBN 1-86872-721-1
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Spatula smithii.
Wikispecies has information related to Anas smithii.
- Cape Shoveler -Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds