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Shelducks

 

 

The family flights of the beautiful and big shelducks are noticeable: the adult pair with eight fledged offspring; of course the number of offspring may vary.

 

The adults can be recognized by the red beak; the male bird has a large red knob at the base of the beak, and he is a little larger than the female. The beaks of the juveniles sre still grey but other differences are not noticeable without binoculars. They feed on invertebrates inhabiting the seaweed banks in the shore shallows and on small crustaceans, alternating with plant food.

 

Once a year the shelducks moult, the whole plumage is exchanged and they are unable to fly for nearly one month. For this they fly to the coastal areas of the Netherlands and Germany or to England, to Bridgewater Bay. They gather in the moulting areas from the whole of Europe, and groups of hundreds of thousands of birds are not rare. Plausibly the birds feel more secure in such ultra-large groups, but ornithologists have not yet found a direct explanation to the phenomenon.