Your Birding Month
Scaup is our Bird of the Month and birds to look for include Marsh Tit, Ring-necked Parakeet and Pinkfooted Goose
SCAUP
The Scaup aka Greater Scaup is a relatively uncommon bird in the UK (with just 5,000 wintering individuals, and just one or two breeding pairs). So, it is easy to forget that it has a massive, circumpolar distribution, breeding across northern Europe, Scandinavia and all the way across northern Russia to the furthest east parts of Eurasia, and beyond to Alaska and Canada. In the UK, though, it is primarily a wintering bird, found in concentrations around certain estuaries, such as the Dee (Cheshire), the Moray Firth, the Firth of Forth and the Solway Firth; and at inland water bodies like the giant Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland.
It is also a duck which can occur, often in small flocks, at inland sites across the rest of the UK, usually as a scarce and irregular visitor.
Closer in size to a Pochard than the smaller (and much more numerous, largely freshwater-loving) Tufted Duck, the Scaup more closely resembles the latter, but they completely lack ‘tufts’ on the rounded head, and drakes in particular are noted for their pale grey (not black) backs. Females are somewhat similar to female Tufted Ducks, but are also grey-backed (a darker grey than the male’s back) and usually have a pronounced white blaze at the base of the bill (but beware, this can also be present in some female Tufties).
Note also the bill pattern on a suspected Scaup, which will be plain (bluish or grey) with a restricted amount of black around the ‘nail’ (the tip of the bill). This is broader in Tufted Ducks. Scaups are also more rounded birds than Tufted Ducks with a high forehead and smoothly rounded head.