Shoveler

What am I?

I am a duck.

Where do I come from?

Some of us stay here all year round but many many more of us fly here from northern Europe and Russia for the winter.

A bit about me

I eat insects, crustaceans, snails, seeds and leaves from the surface of the water. I use my broad bill to filter feed. The serrations along the side of my beak work like a sieve. This means I am referred to as a ‘dabbling duck’. Sometimes I dive to look for food too.

There aren’t many of us around so you will usually only see a few of us at a time.

Watch out because I look a bit like a shelduck from a distance and people often confuse us. Take a closer look though and you will notice we are different colours and our beaks are very different.

Conservation status

I’m amber listed in the UK

I’m a qualifying feature for the Chichester and Langstone Harbours Special Protection Area – that means, when the site was designated, a nationally significant number of us used these awesome coastlines in the winter!