South African Shelduck (Tadorna cana)
About the South African Shelduck
The South African shelduck or Cape shelduck (Tadorna cana) is a species of shelduck, a group of large goose-like birds in the bird family Anatidae, which includes the swans, geese and ducks. This is a common species native to southern Africa. This is a 64 cm (25 in) long bird which breeds mainly in Namibia and South Africa. In the austral winter, many birds move north-east from the breeding range to favoured moulting grounds, where sizable concentrations occur. This species is mainly associated with lakes and rivers in fairly open country, breeding in disused mammal holes, usually those of the aardvark. Pairs tend to be very nomadic when not in breeding season.
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 49 recordings for this species: 42 CC BY-NC-SA · 7 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 South Africa in the xeno-canto catalogue.
Related species you can hear
- Common ShelduckTadorna tadornarecording
- Paradise ShelduckTadorna variegatarecording
- Ruddy ShelduckTadorna ferruginearecording
This species has no recording here yet — these relatives do, so you can hear what the family sounds like.