BIRDS OF ICELAND scaup duck, Aythya marila

Aythya marila; the scaup is a fairly common breeding diving duck on Iceland. They appear very similar to the tufted ducks. They are slightly larger, a difficult trait for recognition whenever one species is absent. The males can best be told by the color of the backs: greyish on the scaup and full black on the tufted duck. Also, the scaup male has a green head where the tufted duck has an almost black/dark purple color. However, very often the heads of scaups also appear "dark", especially on reflecting water surfaces. The female scaup has a very thick white-scaly region around the beak. The female tufted duck sometimes has this too, but only as a thin margin. The female scaup also has a whitish spot behind/below the eyes which female tufted ducks do not have. A common characteristic feature are the bright yellow eyes. In winter almost all scaups leave for the British Isles.

Back to home page