Wednesday 4 September 2013

The bachelorette ducks

The Paradise Shelduck.


This is New Zealand's only Shelduck.  They are a large goose-like duck which graze the pastures, rather than spending time in the water.  


 The female has a pure white head and chestnut body, the males have a black head and dark grey body.  In this breed the female is more eye-catching than the male.


This group of ladies have been flying around together, so they are either the single girls or they have left the men folk and are off for some girl time.


They are very noisy when flying around and the dogs enjoy barking at them as they fly over.

We usually see them in pairs at this time of year so I'm not sure about these four.  Maybe we have a man drought here??



9 comments:

  1. Handsome duck!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

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  2. Great photos of a very handsome duck. Perfect coloring against those very green pastures.

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  3. Those are good looking ducks! We have no Shelduck here in Florida (unless accidental) so it's very nice to see a different species. Thank you for sharing your noisy friends!

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  4. Your Shelduck is a handsome duck. Great shots! Thank you for sharing, have a happy day!

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  5. Wow...do you ever live in a beautiful place!! Very interesting ducks! Thanks for dropping by my blog!

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  6. I love ducks as I live on a pond here, but I have never heard of a duck that hangs around in a pasture of sorts or that a female is the better looking.. I wonder where the males are...Michelle

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  7. It's a beautiful duck. I love the rusty brown colour.

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  8. The four-shot is outstanding♫ My Rurality: http://lauriekazmierczak.com/pommel/

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  9. Great looking ducks!

    I think you Pukeko's and my Purple Swamphens are brothers and sisters - they are the same species!

    Thanks for linking to WBW

    Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne

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