Radjah Shelduck

With a name like that, one would have expected a bird from India: however, it lives on the Australian continent.

Wading in the shallow water of coastal marshes, lagoons and mangrove swamps, the Rajah Shelduck feeds on what it finds in those brackish ecosystems: aquatic plants but especially small invertebrates and molluscs which it filters thanks to the lamellae inside its beak. In view of its habitat, which is unacquainted with cold periods, the species is sedentary.

These birds live in couples or in small groups, rather than in large colonies. Nests are often placed in tree cavities, close to river banks, without any lining, just some down feathers… 6 to 12 eggs are incubated for a month. Even so not very abundant (between 160,000 and 250,000 in number), the species is not threatened; previously hunted, it is now protected in Australia.