Meet Shoveler. This dabbling duck has an unusual “spade” shaped beak. It has special plates on the sides that help the bird get food from the water. 
There is a Hollywood smile. Only the red carpet is missing!
While the beak is closed, it looks like an ordinary duck, just with a swollen nose. But as soon as the bird opens it even a little, a Hollywood whale smile appears to the world! Such eerie beauty is achieved thanks to the horny plates growing on the sides of the beak. But why does the Shoveler need such a device? And then, that this duck is considered the most predatory among other palmate ducks! 
The diet of the shoveler, of course, is full of all sorts of greens: seeds and shoots of aquatic plants. But the bird would be much more willing to dine on some aquatic insect, a small mollusk or a microscopic crustacean. To catch all this little stuff from the water, you need to get a filter. So the duck grew “teeth” from plates. 
Hunting looks very simple: you dip your nose in, scoop up water with all its nutritional riches, spit out the liquid, and eat everything that is left on your teeth. Well, if things get tough, the shoveler turns in circles, forming a whirlpool. The flow of water lifts suspended matter from the bottom, and with it all those who were hiding in it. 
The duck learned to forage for plankton in both the Old and New Worlds. Its hunting skills also do not depend in any way on the landscape: the Shoveler lives in the steppes, taiga, and tundra. The only thing the bird cannot stand is the cold. When winter comes, it migrates south. Here the ducks form pairs for the upcoming breeding season. During nesting there is no time to waste time on sentiment! 
Sometimes one female can be courted by several gentlemen at once, even if she is already in a relationship.
Together the couple gets to the place, together they build a nest somewhere on a hummock, an island, a water meadow or in reeds. But as soon as the female lays her last egg, her hubby quickly molts her. In every sense: the male leaves his chosen one alone with the offspring, and he runs into the bushes to change his feather. 
The duck incubates a clutch of 9-12 eggs alone and will spend about 25 days on this task. But when the children hatch, there will be minimal problems with them. The babies, having just hatched from the egg, are immediately ready to stomp after their mother! And yes, the beaks of the chicks are as gigantic as those of their parents. What do you want? Strange noses on shovelers run in the family!
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