Birds of the Hackensack:  Northern Shoveler

 

By Ivan Kossak

 

At first glance, someone not familiar with the great variety of ducks that spend fall and winter in the Hackensack River watershed may consider a Northern shoveler (Anas clypeata) to be an odd-looking Mallard. Males of both species have a distinctive bright green head. However, the similarities end there.

A male Northern shoveler will sport a white breast with brown sides with both white and mottled brown areas on the back. The shoveler also flashes a bright yellow eye to compare with the Mallard’s dark eye. Additionally, at 19 inches long, the shoveler is a bit smaller than the 23-inch long Mallard. To many observers, the most striking feature of the shoveler is its very large spatulate bill looking, to my eyes, something like a shoehorn. The shoveler uses this large bill to skim the water for food as the bird swims along in its preferred habitat of marshes, ponds and other shallow bodies of water. The shoveler’s diet consists mainly of green plant matter with smaller amount of aquatic invertebrates also consumed.

As is typical of female ducks, the female shoveler has a quite non-descript plumage of mottled brown. This plumage allows the female to camouflage itself while on the nest. This is especially important for ground-nesting birds with long incubation periods. The Northern shoveler will incubate its eggs for three to three-and-one-half weeks. In flight, both male and female shovelers show a large white area in the underwing as well as a whitish blue patch on the leading edge of the upper part of the wing and a bright green patch in the trailing edge of the upper wing (an area known in ducks as the speculum).

Northern shovelers are considered by some to be the most territorial of all North American dabbling ducks. Dabbling ducks feed either on the surface of the water or will dip their heads underwater to find food just below the surface but keep their bodies on the surface. This differentiates the dabblers from diving ducks who will completely submerge in search of food, sometimes to considerable depths.

Northern shovelers nest on the edges of freshwater ponds and marshes primarily in Western North America from Alaska to Colorado and Kansas. They winter along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts as well as in the extreme southern United States and Mexico. In New Jersey, southbound migrant shovelers are fairly common and can be seen as early as late August but most pass through the state from late October through late November. A small number attempt to spend the winter in New Jersey and typically stay as long as the water remains unfrozen. Northbound migrants are most numerous in New Jersey in late March and early April. It is a testament to the quality of the habitat in our watershed that the only confirmed report of breeding Northern shovelers in New Jersey (during a breeding bird survey conducted by the New Jersey Audubon Society from 1993 through 1997) occurred in the Hackensack Meadowlands in June of 1994.