A large, elongated, speckled, brown duck with a distinctive and extended spatula-shaped black bill. In flight the sky-blue forewing is distinctive; no other regularly occurring duck species shares this feature. Male has a gray head, yellow eye, and yellow-orange feet; female has a rusty-brown head, dark eye, and gray-yellow feet. Within its range, the Northern Shoveler is an extremely rare vagrant, and it differs from Cape Shoveller by the following features: male in breeding plumage has a green head and chestnut belly; female and juvenile are in general paler and more warmly colored, but some individuals may be inseparable from female Cape Shoveller.