Shoveler duck.(Anas rhynchotis variegata,)
Shovelers swim with their bill submerged, sieving food from the water surface, and even through mud. The peculiar broad bill is predominant as soon as the chick is hatched.
The shoveler's sifting apparatus is very well developed with fine growths called lamellae on the edges of it's large wedge shaped bill, and bristles on its' tongue that sieve soft food.
Their food is mainly freshwater invertebrates and the seeds of aquatic plants, however, worms and insects are sometimes eaten in flooded pasture. The population is constantly threatened by the drainage of their preferred wetland habitat of fertile raupo edged shallows. Original public domain image from Flickr
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