Common Shelduck Identification Guide

Key Field Marks

• Large, goose-like duck, 58–65 cm long, with a heavy body and long neck compared with most ducks.
• Glossy dark bottle-green head and neck, white body, and a broad chestnut band across the breast and around to the back.
• Black stripe running down the center of the belly and black flight feathers with a green speculum patch.
• Bright red bill; breeding males show a prominent knob at the base of the bill, which is smaller or absent in females.
• Pink-red legs.
• Juveniles and immatures are largely white below and grey-brown above, with a dark cap and lacking the full breast band and bill knob.

Separating It From Similar Species

• Adult Common Shelducks are essentially unmistakable thanks to the bold white/chestnut/black pattern combined with the bright red bill — no other common duck shares this combination.
• Ruddy Shelduck: entirely orange-brown body with a paler head, lacking the pied black-and-white pattern and chestnut breast band of Common Shelduck; also has a dark bill rather than red.
• Juvenile Common Shelducks can look plain and goose-like; separated from young geese by the shelduck's more duck-like bill shape and dark cap contrasting with a white face and neck.

Where and When to See One

• Found year-round across coastal Western Europe, with breeding also occurring inland on lakes and rivers in parts of its range.
• Breeds in dunes, embankments, and other burrows or rabbit holes near coastal wetlands, as well as on inland waters across temperate Europe and central Asia.
• Many populations undertake a molt migration in late summer, gathering in enormous numbers at a few key sites (most famously the Wadden Sea) before dispersing again.
• Favors coastal estuaries, mudflats, and saltmarshes for feeding, sifting invertebrates from wet mud and shallow water.

Voice

• Males give a series of whistling "sillp" or "whee" notes, especially during display.
• Females give a harsher, more strident "gag-ag-ag-ag" call, often repeated in a rapid series.