Red Shoveler (Spatula platalea)

Red Shoveler Spatula platalea
(aka Anas platalea)
Chilean name: Pato cuchara
Brazilian name: Marreca-colhereira

Torres del Paine, Chile
December 2005.

The Red Shoveler breeds in central and southern Chile and Argentina but during the austral winter the southernmost populations migrate northwards as far as Peru and Brazil.

Photo 1 is a male. They are cinnamon with spots on the breast and flanks and a plain greyish-brown head and neck with a white eye. While they do moult, they do not have a distinctive eclipse plumage.

Photo 4 is of females which are brownish-grey with a plain face and a dark eye. The most noticeable feature of both sexes is the very large bill.

There is an illustration in HBW, Volume 1, Page 610

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