The Shoveler with the Piercing Eyes

Better in large ("L").

This is actually a Northern shoveler (Anas clypeata); there are four species of shoveler worldwide. Their name is sometimes spelled shoveller, but apparently shoveler is the accepted norm now. I took this with the BlipBigYear challenge in mind: shovelers hadn't yet been included on the list, so I hope mine makes it! The females have quite different plumage from the males, so I was aiming to blip a photo featuring both (which I managed to capture, and have uploaded to Blipfolio here) but this one was more satisfying a photograph and shows off the peculiar shape of their bills well.

This bill shape is described as "spatulate" and they use it to strain food out of the water: they are dabbling ducks and so stay on the water's surface rather than diving, but put the bill beneath the surface and swing their head from side to side to work on a larger area. Their unusual bill is equipped with deeper ridges (lamellae) than most dabbling ducks which makes them more effective at filtering both plant matter and invertebrates out of the water.