The red shoveler (''Spatula platalea'') is a species of

dabbling duck The Anatinae are a subfamily of the family Anatidae (swans, geese and ducks). Its surviving members are the dabbling ducks, which feed mainly at the surface rather than by diving. The other members of the Anatinae are the extinct moa-nalo, a y ...

native to southern

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

Description

The species has a spatula-shaped bill, a green speculum, and light blue upper wing converts. Male shovelers vary in color from red to paler shades of red (and pink), while the females tend to have large, dark bills. Adults reach a size of about , weigh about , and have a wingspan of about .

Distribution and habitat

The red shoveler breeds in the southern half of

. It ranges from

Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South America, South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main is ...

northwards to

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

and most parts of

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, as well as to the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; ), commonly referred to as The Falklands, is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and from Cape Dub ...

; there are small, isolated breeding populations in the southern regions of

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

, and

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

. They can also be found in the extreme southern regions of

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

, in isolated coastal populations and also further inland. It inhabits shallow lakes and pools with dense reed beds, intertidal mangrove swamps and marshes. They can also be found in brackish waters, such as coastal lagoons, deltas and estuaries.

Ecology

Red shovelers have a diet that includes herbs, grasses, pond weeds, widgeon grass, algae, and eelgrass. They also feed on small invertebrates. The bill is equipped with a lamellate filtering mechanism that allows the extraction of small items of food from the water. Pairs form in the wintering grounds, after often noisy courtship. Once a clutch of 7–8 eggs is laid, incubation lasts about 25–26 days, followed by 40–45 days of fledging. Red shovelers are partially migratory, with the southernmost birds migrating north during the winter season.

Conservation

The red shoveler is a relatively common and widespread species, and is not currently considered at risk. However, it may suffer to an extent from the degradation of its wetland habitats. The species is classified as

Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

due to its extremely large range and apparently overall stable population. Unfortunately, the wetland habitats used for nesting by this species are under threat by problems such as

eutrophication Eutrophication is a general term describing a process in which nutrients accumulate in a body of water, resulting in an increased growth of organisms that may deplete the oxygen in the water; ie. the process of too many plants growing on the s ...

due to agriculture runoff, which causes a loss in aquatic plants, making it difficult for the ducks to find food reliably much less build nests out of said aquatic/herbaceous plants along with grazing cattle trampling down nests and vegetation needed to hide the nests to begin with. This means that despite their species being considered under the category of Least Concern, actual steps need to be taken towards the conservation of this species by both regular farmers and the wetland areas dedicated to conservation where they are supposedly protected from things like tourism, fishing, and hunting, as their true numbers in the wild are unknown because this species is so spread out.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q28106878

red shoveler The red shoveler (''Spatula platalea'') is a species of dabbling duck native to southern South America. Description The species has a spatula-shaped bill, a green speculum, and light blue upper wing converts. Male shovelers vary in color from ...

Birds of Chile Birds of Argentina Birds of Paraguay Birds of Uruguay Birds of Bolivia Birds of the Altiplano