Greater Scaup

Aythya marilla  


male

Appearance:

Medium-sized diving duck

Rounded head; highest point

     towards front of head
Bluish-gray bill with black tip

Yellow eyes

Male:

• Black head
• Black neck and chest
• White back with thin, black wavy lines
• White sides and belly
• Black rump and undertail

Female: 

• Dark brown head and neck
• White patch at base of bill                                      Listen to its call.
• Dark brown back with white flecks    
• Buff brown breast
• Brown sides, flanks and tail                                     
• Whitish belly  



females



After last weekend's birding success, I was a little discouraged with my lack of it during the week. The weather simply refused to cooperate with me. As soon as I stepped out the door with my camera, it would start raining. After numerous failures to locate any new birds in my usual haunts, I headed out to Esquimalt Lagoon yesterday. A fair number of these birds were hanging out among the swans, gulls and other ducks in that area.

I concluded they were Greater Scaup for a number of reasons. The heads of these ducks were rounded compared to the peaked heads of the Lesser Scaup I saw last month. The bills looked larger, as did the ducks themselves. The sides of the males looked whiter than those of the Lesser variety. And finally, at this time of year in our area, Greater Scaup are usually found in salt water and Lesser are more often found in fresh.

Learn more about the Greater Scaup.