Key information
The common shelduck (Tadorna tadorna) is a striking bird, with a reddish-pink bill, pink feet, a white body with chestnut patches and a black belly, and a dark green head and neck. The wing coverts are white, the primary remiges black, and the secondaries green (only showing in flight) and chestnut. The underwings are almost entirely white. Sexes are similar, but the female is smaller, with some white facial markings, while the male is particularly crisply coloured in the breeding season, his bill bright red and bearing a prominent knob at the forehead.
Length :56–67 cm
Wingspan:100–133 cm
Weight : male 830–1500 g, female 562–1250 g
Population : 625,000-750,000 individuals
Habitat: This species is mainly associated with lakes and rivers in open country, breeding in rabbit burrows, tree holes or haystacks.
Diet: Its diet consists predominantly of salt-water molluscs as well as other aquatic invertebrates as insects, crustaceans and worms, small fish, fish spawn and plant material
Location
Birds of the Month
