Places and times seen in Munakata city

It can be seen as a winterbird and can be seen from October to April.
It has been wintering in reservoirs in various places and can be seen relatively well.

Characteristic

Total length 50 cm. It is a feature that the beak is widened like a scoop.
The males have shiny green and blue purple heads, white from the neck with chest and lower abdomen, red brown with armpit and belly. The long shoulder feathers are green luster and the axis spots are white. Wings are medium gray and light rain covering blue gray, heavy rain cover is white. The waist and the upper and lower transition piece are black, the tail is white, the center is whitish. The beak is black and the iris is yellow.
The eye has a bright brown color, the beak is light orange brown, and the iris is brown brown.
Both male and female are orange in feet.

Habit

Living in winter birds, lakes, rivers, coasts, reservoirs and so on.
In addition to prefer plankton, eat plant fragments etc. Eat like a sprinkling plankton while moving the water surface with a beaked beak with a spatula. Round around the water surface to draw a circle with a flock and make unique feeding to gather food at the center.
It is spectacular that more than ten hawkish gull wraps are spinning round.

distribution

It is widely distributed in the northern hemisphere. Siberia, northern Canada, Alaska, Europe and so on, and winter over the Mediterranean coast, the Indian subcontinent, the Indochina Peninsula and the Japanese Archipelago.

Other

In English name a wide beak is called Shoveler as a shovel.