A Eurasian, North American, and New Zealand diving duck, the male of which has a black head with a green or purple gloss.
Genus Aythya, family Anatidae: three species, in particular the widespread A. marila, with a black breast and white sides
‘The lesser scaup is a lovely duck indeed, one that, on its own merits, should always be a pleasure to spy on a lake or stretch of sea coast.’
‘There are mallards galore, the males with their metallic green heads and the females a dowdy brown, and busy little black scaups, bobbing like bath toys.’
‘As the tiny sailor joined the rest of its crew, our eyes were drawn to a small raft of scaup.’
‘Such delays in nest initiation by scaup are especially alarming, given that scaup are migrating through North Dakota earlier than they did historically.’
‘Two ducks common in the winter marsh - the canvasback and greater scaup - are now up in the Yukon and the Seward Peninsula.’
Origin
Late 17th century Scots variant of Scots and northern English scalp ‘mussel bed’, a feeding ground of the duck.
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