BlogRelaxStatisticsWorld mapTop 5
← Back to Australia

Australasian Shoveler (Spatula rhynchotis)

Australasian Shoveler
Photo: JJ Harrison via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 — free for commercial reuse.

About the Australasian Shoveler

The Australasian shoveler (Spatula rhynchotis) is a species of dabbling duck in the genus Spatula. It ranges from 46 to 53 cm (18 to 21 in). It lives in heavily vegetated swamps. In Australia it is protected under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974. They occur in southwestern and southeastern Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand. The male has a blue-grey head with a vertical white crescent in front of the eyes. The common name for the species Spatula rhynchotis is Australasian shoveler no matter which country it is found in. It was previously categorised as two subspecies: S. rhynchotis rhynchotis Australian shoveler, the nominate race, occurs in southwestern and southeastern Australia and Tasmania. S. rhynchotis variegata New Zealand shoveler, occurs in New Zealand.

Source: Australasian shoveler on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA
🎧

No audio on this page yet

We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 4 recordings for this species: 2 CC BY-NC-SA · 1 CC BY-NC-ND. None of them permits commercial use, so there is no player here — the page is kept as a profile so the bird is not missing from the guide.

As soon as someone uploads a freely licensed recording, we mirror it and the player appears here.

Listed as recorded in Australia, New Zealand in the xeno-canto catalogue.

Related species you can hear

This species has no recording here yet — these relatives do, so you can hear what the family sounds like.