Cool Critters: The northern shoveler is one dandy duck with a big schnoz

Call it Spoonie, Spoonbill or Bootlip. Just don’t call it funny looking.

The northern shoveler is not a duck to turn our noses up at, even if it does have a big schnoz.

Sure, its large shovel-shaped bill that inspired its common name and multiple nicknames will catch your eye. But so, too, will the male’s iridescent green head, yellow eyes, bold white chest and bright orange legs. And the female? Though less dramatically colored, her big bill is dusky orange , and when in flight, both sexes display a blue patch on their forewings.

Each of them dons a bill that seems disproportionately big for their bodies. Roughly 2½ inches long, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, it widens toward the end as if flattened by an anvil – a little like Daffy Duck’s conk.

“When it comes to the bill, nothing else looks like a northern shoveler,” said Kyle Spragens, waterfowl manager with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Mostly social and often found in small flocks, northern shovelers breed in areas of Eastern Washington, mostly lowland ponds, lakes and wetlands where they nest along the edges, Spragens said. Most migrate for winter, though some overwinter in Western Washington.

Most dabbling ducks tip downward to feed with their heads submerged and rear ends facing skyward. But not this dabbler. Instead, the northern shoveler glides through shallow water with its neck outstretched, sweeping its submerged bill from side to side.

This is when that honker of a bill is used as a specialized foraging tool, Spragens said. First, the shoveler uses it like a shovel to scoop water and mud. Then, located along the bill’s edges are “very fine, comblike structures called lamellae that filter the water out,” he added.

“Their well-developed lamellae help them extract tiny food sources as they skim the water’s surface,” he explained.

Similar to a colander, water drains out of the bill’s sides while retaining food such as seeds, small insects, crustaceans and snails.

Northern Shovelers are also known for their cooperative “spin” feeding, where a pair or a small group become synchronized swimmers. Moving in a circle, each duck spins in the same direction. This, in turn, creates a vortex that stirs up sediment and brings food particles to the surface where their bills scoop it up, according to the waterfowl conservation organization Ducks Unlimited.

Despite their somewhat heavyset build and an oversized bill, northern shovelers are actually strong and agile fliers, Spragens said.

They’re also fast. During migration, U.S. Geological Survey biologists recorded them flying up to 45 mph.

Ducks Unlimited calls the northern shoveler the “Jimmy Durante of ducks” on its website. Some of you may recall that the late American comedian and singer sported a prominent nose that he affectionately called his schnozzola.

So go ahead, northern shoveler. Tickle our funny bone.