Appearance:
Male - The male Paradise Shelduck has a blackish head with greenish gloss, finely-barred dark-grey or blackish body, black rump and uppertail, white coverts, blackish flight feathers, secondaries are glossy-green, tertials are chestnut coloured, underparts are brown, black undertail, dark-grey beak, brown eyes, and legs and feet are blackish.
Female - The female has a white head and neck, and chestnut body.
Size: - Typical Adult is about 63cm (25in).
Food: - Graze on grasses, clover, grain, peas, weeds, seeds, and aquatic vegetation.
Habitat/Range: - Grasslands, crop fields, wetlands, lakes, rivers, and ponds throughout New Zealand.
Breeding Habitat/Resident, 
Migration or Winter Area.Breeding Season: - August to December.
Eggs: - 5-10 (whitish colour).
Notes: - Paradise Shelducks are endemic to New Zealand. They are known to the Maori as 'Putangitangi'.
Conservation status (IUCN 3.1):
Least Concern.
Classification: - Family: Anatidae,
Subfamily: Tadorninae, Genus: Tadorna.