Greater Scaup

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Greater Scaup

Female (front) and male (rear)

Conservation status

Least Concern

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Anseriformes
Family:	Anatidae
Genus:	Aythya
Species:	A. marila

Binomial name

Aythya marila
(Linnaeus, 1761)

Subspecies

A. m. marila
(Eurasian Greater Scaup)
A. m. nearctica
(Pacific Greater Scaup)

The Greater Scaup (Aythya marila), or just Scaup in Europe, is a small diving duck. It breeds on the ground by lakes and bogs on the tundra and at the northern limits of the boreal forest across Arctic and subarctic regions of northern North America, Europe and Asia.

The adult Greater Scaup is 42-51 cm long with a 71-80 cm wingspan, larger than the Lesser Scaup. It has a blue bill and yellow eyes. The male has a dark head with a green sheen, a black breast, a light back, a black tail and a white bottom. The adult female has a white band at the base of the bill and a brown head and body.

Nearctic Greater Scaup are separable from Palaearctic birds by stronger vermiculation on the mantle and scapulars, and are considered a separate subspecies, A. m. nearctica.

Greater Scaup migrate southwards to winter in flocks to coastal waters.

The Greater Scaup mainly eat mollusks and aquatic plants, obtained by diving and swimmming underwater. There is a report[1] of it eating leopard frogs in a fresh water environment.

This bird's name may come from its display call scaup scaup. It is usually silent when not breeding.

The Greater Scaup is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.

[edit] References

BirdLife International (2004). Aythya marila. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
Splitting headaches? Recent taxonomic changes affecting the British and Western Palaearctic lists - Martin Collinson, British Birds vol 99 (June 2006), 306-323
Madge and Burn, Wildfowl ISBN 0-7470-2201-1