Greater Scaup

Aythya marila Oct–May

A diving duck with a distinctive light-blue-gray bill. The male has a dark green head and yellow eyes with black-and-white vermiculation on the upper half of its body. The female is brown with a white patch next to the bill. They travel in large flocks and can be seen during the winter months looking for food on the water, especially along coastal areas. These ducks are able to dive up to 23 feet in depth, and eat a variety of insects, crustaceans, aquatic plants and mollusks. During the summer, they migrate all the way to the polar regions of North America and Europe, and are the only diving ducks to venture so far north.

The Lesser Scaup has almost identical coloring to the Greater Scaup, with the main difference being a slightly peaked shape to the head, while the Greater Scaup's is smoothly rounded. The Lesser is also usually smaller in size and has a subtle purple sheen to the head rather than the green. In Rhode Island it is more likely to encounter the Greater, since the Lesser only passes through during migration.