Northern Shoveler

According to Dubowy (1966), “the Northern Shoveler is a common holarctic duck with a high degree of morphological and feeding specializations.” This duck is widespread across northern regions of North America, Asia and Europe. We photographed this hen on Olympia’s Capitol Lake on 16 December 2019. These birds use their grotesquely shaped bills to strain aquatic crustaceans from the water. The bill edges are specially laminated for this purpose. While swimming, the ducks hold their bills under water. The bills strain out their invertebrate prey.