# Spatula (bird)

Spatula is a genus or subgenus of ducks in the family Anatidae that includes the shovelers, garganey, and several species of American teals.

## Taxonomy

The species now placed in this genus were formerly placed in the genus Anas. A molecular phylogenetic study comparing mitochondrial DNA sequences published in 2009 found that the genus Anas, as then defined, was non-monophyletic. Based on this published phylogeny, the genus Anas was split into four monophyletic genera with 10 species moved into the resurrected genus Spatula.
The genus Spatula had originally been proposed by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1822. The type species is the northern shoveler. The name Spatula is the Latin word for "spoon", from which the English word "spatula" also originates.

### Extant species

The genus contains 10 species:
Genus Spatula – Boie, F, 1822 – ten species :
| Common name | Scientific name and subspecies | Range | Size and ecology | IUCN status and estimated population |
| Garganey Male Female | Spatula querquedula (Linnaeus, 1758) | Europe and western Asia | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |
| Blue-billed teal | Spatula hottentota (Eyton, 1838) | eastern and southern Africa, from Sudan and Ethiopia west to Niger and Nigeria and south to South Africa and Namibia | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |
| Puna teal | Spatula puna (Tschudi, 1844) | the Andes of Peru, western Bolivia, northern Chile and extreme northwestern Argentina | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |
| Silver teal | Spatula versicolor (Vieillot, 1816) Two subspecies S. v. versicolor (Vieillot, 1816) S. v. fretensis (King, 1831)) | southern Bolivia, southern Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, South Georgia, the South Sandwich Islands and the Falkland Islands | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |
| Red shoveler Male Female | Spatula platalea (Vieillot, 1816) | Tierra del Fuego northwards to Chile and most parts of Argentina, as well as the Falkland Islands and small isolated breeding populations in southern Peru | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |
| Cinnamon teal Male Female | Spatula cyanoptera (Vieillot, 1816) Four subspecies Spatula cyanoptera septentrionalium (Oberholser, 1906) Spatula cyanoptera tropica (Snyder & Lumsden, 1951) Spatula cyanoptera borreroi (Snyder & Lumsden, 1951) Spatula cyanoptera orinoma (Snyder & Lumsden, 1951) Spatula cyanoptera cyanoptera (Vieillot, 1816) | South America, western United States and extreme southwestern Canada; a rare visitor to the East Coast of the United States | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |
| Blue-winged teal Male Female | Spatula discors (Linnaeus, 1766) | North America, where it breeds from southern Alaska to Nova Scotia and south to northern Texas | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |
| Cape shoveler Male Female | Spatula smithii Hartert, 1891 | South Africa, uncommon further north in Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, southern Angola, Lesotho, Mozambique and Zambia | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |
| Australasian shoveler Male Female | Spatula rhynchotis (Latham, 1801) Two subspecies S. r. rhynchotis(Latham, 1801) S. r. variegata(Gould, 1856) | Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |
| Northern shoveler Male Female | Spatula clypeata (Linnaeus, 1758) | northern areas of Europe and Asia and across most of North America | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |

### Phylogeny

Cladogram based on the analysis of Gonzalez and colleagues published in 2009.