Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Ruddy Shelduck

Tadorna ferruginea

Description:

A distinctive beautiful duck with an orange-brown body plumage and a paler head; a rare spotting for central Europe.

Habitat:

A pond with thick reeds and dense vegetation, the same pond as the 2 previous spottings.

Notes:

The last shot shows a broader view of the pond. The 2 ducks on the right corner are also unknown to me.

2 Species ID Suggestions

Isabela
Isabela 12 years ago
Ruddy Shelduck
Tadorna ferruginea Ruddy Shelduck
Ruddy Shelduck
Tadorna ferruginea


Sign in to suggest organism ID

20 Comments

DanielePralong
DanielePralong 10 years ago

Thank you Mona and Ali! These are indeed beautiful ducks.

Ali Hemati Pour
Ali Hemati Pour 10 years ago

So Cute!

MonaRichardson
MonaRichardson 10 years ago

wow amazing tans and blues! Nice shot!

DanielePralong
DanielePralong 12 years ago

Thank you KatCuff!

DanielePralong
DanielePralong 12 years ago

Thank you KatCuff!

KatCuff
KatCuff 12 years ago

Very pretty duck and great series!

DanielePralong
DanielePralong 12 years ago

Thank you for your comment Atul; nice that you noticed the lost feather! I visited the same pond 2 days ago and this duck, which is very rare in this area, is still here a year later (there are actually a couple). I'll post new pics shortly!

DanielePralong
DanielePralong 12 years ago

Thank you Nicholas4! You can tell your daughter I love the pic of her with the beans!

Atul
Atul 12 years ago

very nic pic Daniele ,there is even a feather fallen down while preening

Nicholas4
Nicholas4 12 years ago

Excellent shot! My daughter loves it!!

DanielePralong
DanielePralong 12 years ago

Thanks for your comment Karen. I plan to visit this pond again soon to check for this duck (spotting was same time of year last year). Ducks are generally easier to approach than other birds to get a good shot.

KarenP
KarenP 12 years ago

great photo. Thanks for posting. Exciting to see when it's less common. And to get such a good photo, too. Nice.

DanielePralong
DanielePralong 12 years ago

The last census for this duck by the central Swiss bird station reports only 15-25 breeding pairs in the country.
http://www.vogelwarte.ch/ruddy-shelduck....

DanielePralong
DanielePralong 12 years ago

Thank you Alice!

alicelongmartin
alicelongmartin 12 years ago

Beautiful feathers and pictures!

DanielePralong
DanielePralong 12 years ago

LauraMaria, Isabela has just made the same ID suggestion so I guess we're pretty safe. I'll research their recent sighting in Switzerland. Thank you again to you both!

LauraMaria
LauraMaria 12 years ago

No problem! Yes, I was hesitant to suggest it as Switzerland is pretty far west into Europe for these normally... but I know that we get them sometimes even here in the UK and, well, it just looks exactly like a ruddy shelduck so there's nothing else it can be! You have a very special pond, apparently! :D

DanielePralong
DanielePralong 12 years ago

Thank you so much LauraMaria! I will update accordingly. This is a very unusual duck for my neck of the woods as the European population is declining...

LauraMaria
LauraMaria 12 years ago

Oh, excellent spot! This is a Ruddy Shelduck :) And what fabulous colours!! I wish something like this came to visit my pond!

SarahWhitt
SarahWhitt 12 years ago

Ahhhh.....Thanks Daniele....another pretty one to add to my favorites! Wish I had a pond nearby :D

DanielePralong
Spotted by
DanielePralong

Valais/Wallis, Switzerland

Spotted on Jul 13, 2010
Submitted on May 10, 2011

Related Spottings

Shelduck Common Shelduck Common Shelduck Shelduck

Nearby Spottings

Ferruginous duck Tufted duck Unidentified duck Ringed Teal

Reference

Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team