{"id":1204,"date":"2013-04-17T07:55:24","date_gmt":"2013-04-17T11:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/?p=1204"},"modified":"2025-05-21T07:54:44","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T11:54:44","slug":"canadian-duck-big-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/canadian-duck-big-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Which Canadian Duck has the Biggest Bill?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There\u2019s one duck that you can identify even if you can\u2019t clearly see its colours. It has an outrageously over-sized bill. Here are a few photos to show you what I mean.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/ShovelerMaleUnderBillonNaturalCrooksDotCom5.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1203\" src=\"http:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/ShovelerMaleUnderBillonNaturalCrooksDotCom5.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of Shoveler Male Under Bill on NaturalCrooksDotCom\" width=\"473\" height=\"242\" srcset=\"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/ShovelerMaleUnderBillonNaturalCrooksDotCom5.jpg 473w, https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/ShovelerMaleUnderBillonNaturalCrooksDotCom5-200x102.jpg 200w, https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/ShovelerMaleUnderBillonNaturalCrooksDotCom5-400x204.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 473px) 100vw, 473px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This male shows the underside of the bill is a reddish colour.<\/p>\n<p>The owner of this monstrous beak is the Northern Shoveler. According to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/guide\/northern_shoveler\/lifehistory\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Cornell University, the bill is edged with over 100 fine projections to help it filter small invertebrates<\/strong><\/a> from the water when it\u2019s feeding. It also eats some fine seeds.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/ShovelerFemaleBigBillonNaturalCrooksDotCom5.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1196\" src=\"http:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/ShovelerFemaleBigBillonNaturalCrooksDotCom5.jpg\" alt=\"Photo Shoveler Female Big Bill on NaturalCrooksDotCom\" width=\"399\" height=\"248\" srcset=\"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/ShovelerFemaleBigBillonNaturalCrooksDotCom5.jpg 399w, https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/ShovelerFemaleBigBillonNaturalCrooksDotCom5-200x124.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 399px) 100vw, 399px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This female shoveler has tilted her head enough we can see the shape of the bill better. It&#8217;s a distinctive orange.<\/p>\n<p>The big bill is a great field mark. That is if you can ever get one of these ducks to lift its head long enough to see it!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/ShovelerFemaleBillonNaturalCrooksDotCom5.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1197\" src=\"http:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/ShovelerFemaleBillonNaturalCrooksDotCom5.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of Shoveler Female Bill on NaturalCrooksDotCom\" width=\"327\" height=\"288\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is the female tilting her head so you can see the bill from the top looking down. You can see it&#8217;s almost a spoon shape at the end.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related Reading<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Join In<\/strong><br \/>\nHave you seen a Shoveler? Did it make your neck ache a bit just imagining holding up that bill? Please share your experiences with a comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Northern Shoveler ducks have a great bill for the job. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[25,453],"class_list":["post-1204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focus","tag-birds","tag-northern-shoveler"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1204"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9720,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204\/revisions\/9720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}