---
title: "Northern Shoveler"
description: "Spatula clypeata — Vogels. The northern shoveler (; Spatula clypeata), often known simply as the shoveler where other related species do not occur, is a common and widespread duck."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/nl/animal/northern-shoveler
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Northern Shoveler

> Spatula clypeata — Vogels. The northern shoveler (; Spatula clypeata), often known simply as the shoveler where other related species do not occur, is a common and widespread duck.

- Scientific name: *Spatula clypeata*
- Category: `birds` (Vogels)
- Habitats: `freshwater` (Meren en rivieren)
- iNaturalist observations: 139293
- Wikidata: [Q28106731](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q28106731)
- iNaturalist taxon: [558438](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/558438)

## Names

- en: Northern Shoveler
- de: Löffelente
- es: Pato cucharón norteño
- fr: Canard souchet
- pl: Płaskonos zwyczajny

## Countries with the most observations

US (65727), CA (11520), RU (11434), MX (10469), GB (5616), ES (3784), DE (2250), FR (2174), TW (1810), IT (1709), IN (1627), JP (1443)

## Summary

The northern shoveler (; Spatula clypeata), often known simply as the shoveler where other related species do not occur, is a common and widespread duck. It breeds in northern areas of Europe and throughout the Palearctic and across most of North America, and winters in southern Europe, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Central America, the Caribbean, and northern South America. It is a rare vagrant to Australia. In North America, it breeds along the southern edge of Hudson Bay and west of this body of water, and as far south as the Great Lakes west to Colorado, Nevada, and Oregon.
The northern shoveler is…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_shoveler

## Photo

![Northern Shoveler](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/northern-shoveler/medium.jpg)

Photo: Claude Lyneis · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/194955806

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/northern-shoveler?lang=nl` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).