{{short description|Species of bird}} {{speciesbox | name = Cape shoveler | image = Cape Shoveler RWD.jpg | image_caption = Male | image2 = M cs A smithii - Flickr - Lip Kee.jpg | image2_caption = Female | status = LC | status_system = IUCN3.1 | status_ref = <ref name="iucn status 25 September 2021">{{cite iucn |author1=BirdLife International |date=2016 |title=''Spatula smithii'' |volume=2016 |article-number=e.T22680236A92852018 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22680236A92852018.en |access-date=25 September 2021}}</ref> | genus = Spatula | species = smithii | authority = Hartert, 1891 | synonyms = ''Anas smithii'' <small>(Hartert, 1891)</small> }}

The '''Cape shoveler''' or '''Cape shoveller''' ('''''Spatula smithii''''') is a species of dabbling duck of the genus ''Spatula''. It is resident in South Africa, and uncommon further north in Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, southern Angola, Lesotho, Mozambique, and Zambia.<ref name="iucn status 25 September 2021" /><ref name=Wildfowl/>

This 51–53&nbsp;cm long duck is non-migratory, but undertakes some local seasonal movements. It is gregarious when not breeding, and may then form large flocks.

This species has a large spatulate bill. Adults have speckled grey-brown plumage and dull orange legs. As with many southern hemisphere ducks, the sexes appear similar, but the male has a paler head than the female, a pale blue forewing separated from the green speculum by a white border, and yellow eyes. The female's forewing is grey.

Cape shoveler can only be confused with a vagrant female northern shoveler, but is much darker and stockier than that species.<ref name=Wildfowl>{{cite book|title=Wildfowl an Identification Guide to the Ducks, Geese and Swans of the World.|year=2010|publisher=A & C Black|location=London|isbn=978-1-4081-3895-3|pages=233–234|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gFawO8q9VfIC&q=Australian+Shelduck&pg=PA165}}</ref>

It is a bird of open wetlands, such as wet grassland or marshes with some emergent vegetation, and feeds by dabbling for plant food, often by swinging its bill from side to side to strain food from the water.<ref name=Wildfowl/> This bird also eats molluscs and insects in the nesting season. The nest is a shallow depression on the ground, lined with plant material and down, and usually close to water.

This is a fairly quiet species. The male has ''rarr'' and ''cawick'' calls, whereas the female has a ''quack''.<ref name=Wildfowl/>

The Cape shoveler was described by the German ornithologist Ernst Hartert in 1891 under the present binomial name ''Spatula smithii''.<ref>{{ cite book | last=Hartert | first=Ernst | author-link=Ernst Hartert | year=1891 | title=Katalog der Vogelsammlung im Museum der Senckenbergischen naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Frankfurt-am-Main | language=German | place=Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany | publisher=Knauer | page=231, note | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/6498857 }}</ref><ref>{{ cite book | editor1-last=Mayr | editor1-first=Ernst | editor1-link=Ernst Mayr | editor2-last=Cottrell | editor2-first=G. William | year=1979 | title=Check-list of Birds of the World | volume=1 | edition=2nd | publisher=Museum of Comparative Zoology | place=Cambridge, Massachusetts | page=479 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/16109119 }}</ref> The specific epithet commemorates the Scottish zoologist Andrew Smith.<ref>{{cite book | last=Jobling | first=James A. | year=2010| title= The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | publisher=Christopher Helm | location=London | isbn= 978-1-4081-2501-4 | page=358 | url=https://archive.org/stream/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling#page/n358/mode/1up}}</ref>

The IUCN Red List sets the conservation status of the Cape shoveler as least concern.<ref name="iucn status 25 September 2021" />

==Footnotes== {{Reflist}}

==References== *Madge, & Burn, ''Wildfowl'' {{ISBN|0-7470-2201-1}} *Sinclair, Ian, Hockey, Phil, and Tarboton, Warwick ''SASOL Birds of Southern Africa'' (Struik 2002) {{ISBN|1-86872-721-1}}

==External links== {{Commons category|Spatula smithii}} {{Wikispecies|Anas smithii}} * Cape Shoveler -[http://sabap2.adu.org.za/docs/sabap1/112.pdf Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds]

{{Taxonbar|from1=Q1002572|from2=Q28106937}}

Category:Spatula (bird) Category:Birds of Southern Africa Category:Birds described in 1891 Category:Taxa named by Ernst Hartert Category:Fauna of South Africa Category:Endemic birds of South Africa