The male has a green head, white breast and chestnut sides. The female is a mottled brown. Females have a typical quacking call, males a took-took . Shovelers usually travel in small flocks of 5-10 birds. In deep water, shovelers apparently feed on surface plankton, taking in a steady stream of water at the tip of the bill and expelling it at the base, straining out microscopic plants.
Shovelers breed in the northwestern United States, Canada and Alaska.
Females nest in grassy cover, sometimes well away from water. The 10 eggs hatch in three to four weeks. Shovelers pass through Pennsylvania in March and April, and again in September and October. They winter along the southern United States coast and in western states and Central America.