Ruddy Shelduck

Tadorna ferruginea (Pallas, 1764)

58–70 cmLength130 cmWingspan1.2 kgWeight

This large duck is orange-yellow overall, with conspicuous white, yellow and green wings in flight.

Busiest months: December–March · Most records: India, China, Spain

Least Concern

How to identify

Field marks

Orange-yellow overall, with a paler, whitish head
Tail feathers, uppertail-coverts and primaries black
Tips of secondaries deep green, forming a green speculum
Bill black, legs and feet dark gray to blackish

Male, female and young

Male in the breeding season has a narrow black collar; female has a whitish head and neck without a black collar; juvenile resembles female, but is darker brown.

Voice

A series of loud, nasal calls, with an audible difference between the sexes.

Where and when it's recorded

Ruddy Shelduck has been recorded at 1,480 of the 8,171 birding hotspots we track, in 71 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

Bharatpur – Keoladeo Ghana NPIndia2,350 records
Aras Kuş Halkalama İstasyonuTürkiye1,745 records
Shahe ReservoirChina1,389 records

More places

Klingnauer StauseeSwitzerland1,223 records
Emb. Santillana – antigua crtaSpain1,106 records
Gajoldoba Barrage JGIndia1,060 records
Maguri BeelIndia939 records
Mogan Gölü Sel KapanıTürkiye812 records
Asan Conservation ReserveIndia799 records
Chilika Lake – MangalajodiIndia797 records

Countries and regions with the most records

India China Spain Germany Türkiye Mongolia Switzerland Nepal

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The ruddy shelduck (Tadorna ferruginea) is a bird species in the family Anatidae. It is a migratory bird, wintering in the Indian subcontinent and breeding in southeastern Europe and central Asia, though there are small resident populations in North Africa. It has a loud honking call.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

Questions

How big is the Ruddy Shelduck?

The Ruddy Shelduck is about 58–70 cm long, with a wingspan of 130 cm and weighs around 1.2 kg.

Where does the Ruddy Shelduck live?

Its breeding range: Palearctic, Africa: southern Europe to Central Asia, northwestern Africa and Ethiopia. It is most often recorded in India, China and Spain.