SPATULA DUCKS

     We know spatulas are like broad forks to flip and pick up food.  Three kinds of handsome small ducks, that nest in North America's grassy habitats, blue-winged teal, cinnamon teal and northern shovelers, are in the related Spatula grouping of ducks because they have large, shovel-like beaks for their smaller size.  And they have other characteristics in common that indicate their descending from a common ancestor.  They seem to be close cousins. 

     Both genders of all species have lovely light-blue, white and metallic green feathers in the same places and order on each wing.  Those lovely color patterns are seen best when the birds fly.  

     And all these beautiful species nest in marshes and around shallow ponds that have lots of emergent vegetation like cattails and tall grasses.  They all use their large bills to dabble (shovel up) plants, including duck weed, grass and sedge stems, smartweed and their seeds, millet seeds and small aquatic animals, such as snails and insect larvae.  They collect their food in calm, shallow waters, and on mud flats on shorelines.         

     Though hens of these pretty, diminutive species are brown with darker markings that camouflage them while incubating eggs on nests of dead grass under tall, living grass, drakes of each kind are attractive in breeding plumages in spring, which impress prospective mates.  Male blue-winged teal are mostly brown, with darker speckles, and a white half moon on each side of their gray faces.  Drake cinnamon teal have rusty-red heads, necks and flanks, but are brown on their backs.  And drake shovelers have metallic-green heads, white chests and rusty-red flanks.     

     These species of related ducks became different kinds because they nest, for the most part, in different parts of Earth.  They evolved similar habits in identical habitats, but apart from each other.  Blue-wings nest mostly in the eastern and Canadian parts of North America.  Cinnamon teal nest in western North America to western South America.  Shovelers rear offspring across the northern hemisphere.  With isolation, these species developed over many years from a common ancestor.

     It's interesting to note that hen and fully-feathered, but young, blue-winged teal and cinnamon teal are nearly identical to one another.  They are nearly impossible to identify in the field, again demonstrating their close relatedness.  Female and young shovelers also look like both kinds of teal, except this species has really large spatulas.

     The two types of teal, and shovelers, are beautiful, and interesting because of the traits they have in common.  To this day, they indicate how closely related they are.    

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