Shelduck

Description:

Large and striking shelduck, some 55 cm in length, resembling somewhat to a goose. White body with chestnut and black patches; and dark-green to black head and a massive red-pink bill. The difference between the sexes is not striking; male (Photo 1) has particularly bright colors, and a distinctive knob at the base of the bill; female are bit smaller with paler colors (photo 2 and 3), and no knob.

Habitat:

Common on western French Atlantic coast, rarely in interior - however, here observed deep inside the land, just in between Lyon (France) and Geneva (Switzerland). Seen in shallow wetlands - in and around a Bird Park Villars-les-Dombes, in a marshy area of Dombes; France.