Species group · Birds

Shelducks

WAnimals has 2 species of shelduck, all in the family Anatidae.

2 species

1 family

73 countries

82 parks

Ranges calculated from the entries that record the figure, not from all 2.

All 2 species of shelducks on WAnimals

Each one has its own full entry. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.

Ruddy Shelduck

Tadorna ferruginea

Common Shelduck

Tadorna tadorna

2 Least Concern

No species documented in this group is genuinely at risk according to the IUCN, with the data available today.

Recorded in 73 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:

A sacred bird in Tibetan Buddhism; it nests in burrows and on cliffs.
From Ruddy Shelduck
It is the only duck that nests regularly in Macaronesia.
From Ruddy Shelduck
It reached the Canary Islands by natural colonisation in the mid-1990s, presumably from Western Sahara or southern Morocco, and today breeds on Fuerteventura with occasional breeding on Tenerife and Lanzarote.
From Ruddy Shelduck
It places its nest in cavities a long way from water, which forces the newly hatched ducklings to make an overland journey that can be very dangerous for them.
From Common Shelduck
The ducklings gather in large crèches with the young of other pairs, watched over by a few adults and by birds that have failed to breed.
From Common Shelduck
Most pairs leave their young before they are fully grown and head for quiet areas by the sea to moult, a period in which they lose their flight feathers and cannot fly.
From Common Shelduck