Identification & Description:
• Small slender songbird.
• Tiny bill
• Dark orange forehead and throat
• Medium-sized diving duck.
• Rounded head.
• Bill bluish with black tip.
• Male with black head, chest, and rear end, and gray sides (black on the ends and white in the middle).
• Female dull brown, with white patch on face at base of bill.
• Size: 39-56 cm (15-22 in)
• Wingspan: 72-79 cm (28-31 in)
• Weight: 726-1360 g (25.63-48.01 ounces)

Facts
• Occasionally an older female Greater Scaup will have male-like head color and male patterning on her back, but she still has the typical white face patch of a female.

• Once incubation begins, the male Greater Scaup leaves the female and goes to molt on some relatively large, isolated lake. These lakes are used year after year during molt, and may be in the immediate vicinity of the breeding wetlands or many miles away. They are relatively shallow and contain abundant food and suitable cover.

• The nest of a Greater Scaup is usually lined with a thick layer of down plucked by the mother from her own breast. Nests of poor-condition females may lack down and instead may contain small, grayish-white feathers plucked from beneath the outer body feathers.

Other Names
Fuligule milouinan (French)
Porron bastardo, Buixot (Spanish)
Scaup (British) (English)