Up close, the drake lesser scaup's head has a purplish iridescence, while the sheen on the greater scaup's head is green. The greater scaup has narrower barring on its back, and the barring rarely extends onto its white flanks. Learning how to identify birds can be tricky. Today we saw our first northern shovelers of the season (boldly colored ducks with enormous bills), and a belted kingfisher. 1].. Lesser Scaup migrate late in the season, when lakes freeze, and travel nocturnally in flocks. Birds like sparrows, gulls and warblers all present their own challenges when it comes to identification. But greater scaup have white on their primary and secondary feathers extending nearly to the tip of the wing, while lesser scaup only have white on their secondaries. Lesser Scaup - Length: 16 inches Wing span: 25 inches. Gregarious in winter over large parts of the U.S., the abundant Lesser Scaup breeds primarily in boreal forest regions of Canada. Learning how to identify birds can be tricky. Comparison of Greater and Lesser Scaup: Help with a challenging identification is here! Heads, wings, and feet of Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis) and Greater Scaup (Aythya marila) were obtained from 365 birds killed by hunters to investigate differences in structural size and in the intensity and extent of the white wing stripe.Twelve morphological measurements were taken on each bird and wing stripes were quantitatively scored using soil colour charts. Female Lesser Scaup Aythya affinis,Cleethorpes Country Park, Lincolnshire,April 1999 (39) and female Greater Scaup A.marila,Seaforth, Merseyside,November 1998 (40).Female Lesser Scaup is more difficult to identify than the male,and confusion is more likely to occur with female Tufted Lesser Scaup Aythya affinis. The light band near the trailing edges of the wings runs almost to the tip in the greater scaup, but only about half way in the lesser. In the case of waterfowl, one of the trickiest IDs can be the differentiation of Greater and Lesser Scaup. Lesser Scaup: Photo by Nels Nelson, Macaulay Library at Cornell Lab (ML132519791), 1 January 2019; Greater Scaup: Photo by Frank Pinilla, Macaulay Library at Cornell Lab (ML91137711), 16 February 2018. … Comparison of Greater and Lesser Scaup: Help with a challenging identification is here! More supportive is that the white shading doesn’t extend to the wing tips, rather it seems to halt about mid-wing where it seems to blend to gray/brown. In the case of waterfowl, one of the trickiest IDs can be the differentiation of Greater and Lesser Scaup. The lesser wings of the sphenoid or orbito-sphenoids are two thin triangular plates, which arise from the upper and anterior parts of the body, and, projecting lateralward, end in sharp points [Fig. Adult male Greater Scaup in breeding plumage have a black head with a glossy green sheen while the Lesser Scaup generally has a black head with a purplish glossy sheen although it … See the comparative range maps: lesser scaup vs. greater scaup. Note the rounder head of the Greater Scaup with the peak of the head being farther forward. Lesser Scaup Aythya affinis. This is also borne out in Minnesota eBird records for the two: lesser scaup vs. greater scaup. by Greg Hanisek, editor of The Connecticut Warbler Where To Find Them: Both species can be found in saltwater and freshwater, although neither is numerous on freshwater in Connecticut. Wing pattern of adult male Lesser and Greater Scaups. by Greg Hanisek, editor of The Connecticut Warbler Where To Find Them: Both species can be found in saltwater and freshwater, although neither is numerous on freshwater in Connecticut. Figure 9. Heads, wings, and feet of Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis) and Greater Scaup (Aythya marila) were obtained from 365 birds killed by hunters to investigate differences in structural size and in the intensity and extent of the white wing stripe.Twelve morphological measurements were taken on each bird and wing stripes were quantitatively scored using soil colour charts. Greater Scaup Aythya marila. Most often, these ducks are seen from afar in large "rafts" of… Male Lesser Scaups in basic plumage. Except for the wing marks, greater and lesser scaup appear nearly identical in the field.