The Common Shelduck, colourful giant duck of the salt lagoons
Bridging the gap between geese and ducks, the Common Shelduck (Tadorna tadorna) is one of Europe's most strikingly patterned waterfowl. A staple of Hyères salt lagoons and Giens, it explores mudflats in bonded pairs and family broods.
My field observations in the Var — sites, months and context
✓ Aug 2026 Synthesis (1 record)Consistently sighted at Les Pesquiers and Les Vieux Salins, where shallow hypersaline evaporation basins provide rich harvests of tiny mud snails and brine crustaceans.
Commented in situ photo gallery
1 telephoto photographs taken in the Var department (Rule 11)
Recognizing the species on my photos — visible details
Crisp white plumage with a broad chestnut breast band, dark bottle-green head and neck, and a vivid upturned carmine bill bearing a fleshy basal knob on adult breeding males.
Brackish lagoons, coastal saltpans, sheltered estuaries and intertidal mudflats.
Mud snails (Hydrobia), small crustaceans, marine worms and tender algae.
Photographing the species: field experience
Captured with a long telephoto from perimeter dikes, its bold graphic colors stand out vibrantly against the pink and turquoise tones of Mediterranean brine pans.
- •It routinely nests underground, frequently taking over abandoned rabbit burrows around coastal marshes.
- •By late summer, adult birds assemble ducklings into massive communal crèches watched by just a few 'babysitter' adults.
- •Its name honors the 16th-century French renaissance naturalist Pierre Belon.
