fuligule milouinan Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon

The greater scaup (Aythya marila) is a diving duck reaching a body length of roughly 40 to 51 centimetres. In breeding plumage the drake shows a glossy black head, black breast and a distinctly pale grey back, while the female is brown with a conspicuous white patch around the base of the bill. The species is easily confused with the tufted duck, but unlike the latter the greater scaup shows a clearly grey, not black, back.

Breeding grounds lie almost circumpolar in the far north, from Iceland through Scandinavia to Siberia. In Central Europe the bird breeds only sporadically and very locally and is encountered above all as a winter guest and passage migrant. Main wintering quarters are the south-western Baltic Sea, the North Sea coast and the coastal waters of Britain and north-western France. Outside the breeding season the species prefers sheltered, calm coastal bays and shallow straits and, less commonly, larger inland lakes. The diet is predominantly animal-based, consisting mainly of mussels, snails and small crustaceans taken by diving.

For hunters in Germany, Austria and Switzerland the greater scaup is a species that is rarely encountered in everyday practice. It is fully protected year-round in Switzerland and Austria, and across most German states it is not a quarry species. The bird is moreover classified as extremely rare on the national German Red List of breeding birds. Because the wintering population concentrates on a few key resting waters and is additionally threatened by bycatch in fishing nets and by oil pollution, particular care and restraint are appropriate when moving through scaup areas. A safe identification and a clear distinction from the similar tufted duck are in every case a binding prerequisite before any shot is even considered.