Greater Scaup
GREATER SCAUP
Aythya marila
Family Anatidae
L 40-51cm accidental
Bird #531 - December 2021
This is described in D. Allen's field guide as a "large diving duck with well-rounded head, large pale grey bill .. yellow iris". The female has a well defined white face.
To us, based on the illustrations in the Kennedy guide, it looked very similar to a Tufted Duck, but without the tuft. It is often found with Tufted Ducks. Whenever we see a flock of Tufted Ducks we check to see if one of them is a Greater Scaup. We have taken many photos of what we thought were likely suspects. The ones that looked bigger or had very prominent white on their faces. They all turned out to be Tufted Ducks.
We were very happy to finally see an actual, confirmed Greater Scaup! There were two individuals, spotted by Rob Hutchinson. They were very far away and mixed in with the Tufted Ducks making it hard to figure out which bird was the Scaup. Good thing we had a scope and Rob was there to sort them out. It was very interesting to see it side by side with the Tufted Duck. I remember being told before that the head should "look massive".
This was only our second time to go out birding in 2021! We had 2 lifers on this day, the other one was the Ferruginous Duck.
Read MoreAythya marila
Family Anatidae
L 40-51cm accidental
Bird #531 - December 2021
This is described in D. Allen's field guide as a "large diving duck with well-rounded head, large pale grey bill .. yellow iris". The female has a well defined white face.
To us, based on the illustrations in the Kennedy guide, it looked very similar to a Tufted Duck, but without the tuft. It is often found with Tufted Ducks. Whenever we see a flock of Tufted Ducks we check to see if one of them is a Greater Scaup. We have taken many photos of what we thought were likely suspects. The ones that looked bigger or had very prominent white on their faces. They all turned out to be Tufted Ducks.
We were very happy to finally see an actual, confirmed Greater Scaup! There were two individuals, spotted by Rob Hutchinson. They were very far away and mixed in with the Tufted Ducks making it hard to figure out which bird was the Scaup. Good thing we had a scope and Rob was there to sort them out. It was very interesting to see it side by side with the Tufted Duck. I remember being told before that the head should "look massive".
This was only our second time to go out birding in 2021! We had 2 lifers on this day, the other one was the Ferruginous Duck.
