Description: The colourful males have a bright green head and belly, rufous sides, a white breast and a black-and-white back. Females are a uniform, mottled brown. Both sexes have wide, flat bills, a green speculum, blue wing patches and orange feet.

Range: Throughout the Northern Hemisphere. They overwinter in South America, southern Eurasia and east Africa.

Habitat: Found in shallow ponds, lakes, marshes and in flooded fields.

General: These birds feed on vegetation and small aquatic insects. They strain their food from the water using the sieve-like inside edge of the bill.

Bovey, Robin, Campbell, Wayne, and Gates, Brian. 1989. Birds of Victoria and Vicinity. Lone Pine Publishing. Edmonton, Alberta.

Peterson, Roger Tory. 1990. Peterson Field Guides: Western Birds. Houghton Mifflin Company. New York, New York.

Udvardy, Miklos D. F. 1994. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Western Region. Chanticlear Press, Inc. New York, New York.

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