Ruddy Shelduck

Tadorna ferruginea

The ruddy shelduck is a bird species in the family Anatidae. It is a distinctive waterfowl, 58 to 70 cm in length with a wingspan of 110 to 135 cm. It has orange-brown body plumage with a paler head, while the tail and the flight feathers in the wings are black, contrasting with the white wing-coverts. 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. Source

Where it is now

In the last 8 weeks this bird was recorded 1,225 times across 43 areas (each area is a 5 degree square).

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Movement and weather

Each season it is first heard regularly where daytime highs are around 21°C (typically 12 to 33°C, from 7 areas). That range is wide, so temperature alone does not explain when it turns up.

Over the weeks it was present in the past year, its centre in Europe ranged from 40°N in December to 64°N in June, about 2,600 km apart.

Arrival dates

The week it was first heard regularly in each region, after at least six weeks away. Dates differ from south to north, so a region has a range.

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Figures are effort corrected and come from automatic sound identification, which makes mistakes. How this is measured and how it compares with human observers.