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The greater scaup (Aythya marila), just scaup in Europe or, colloquially, "bluebill" in North America, [3] is a mid-sized diving duck, larger than the closely related lesser scaup and tufted duck. It spends the summer months breeding in Iceland, east across Scandinavia, northern Russia and Siberia, Alaska, and northern Canada.
It is colloquially known as the little bluebill or broadbill because of its distinctive blue bill. The origin of the name scaup may stem from the bird's preference for feeding on scalp—the Scottish word for clams, oysters, and mussels; however, some credit it to the female's discordant scaup call as the name's source. [ 2 ]
Waterfowl hunting is the practice of hunting aquatic birds such as ducks, geese and other waterfowls or shorebirds for sport and meat. Waterfowl are hunted in crop fields where they feed, or in areas with bodies of water such as rivers, lakes, ponds, wetlands , sloughs , or coasts. [ 1 ]
The blue-billed duck (Oxyura australis) is a small Australian stiff-tailed duck, with both the male and female growing to a length of 40 cm (16 in). [ 2 ] [ 3 ] The male has a slate-blue bill which changes to bright-blue during the breeding season, hence the duck's common name.
A duck decoy (or decoy duck) is a man-made object resembling a duck. Duck decoys are typically used in waterfowl hunting to attract real ducks, but they are also used as collectible art pieces. [1] Duck decoys were historically carved from wood, often Atlantic white cedar wood on the east coast of the United States, [2] or cork.
Hunting seasons for the yellow-billed duck are planned so as not to overlap with the breeding season, which is around July. However, the exact breeding season varies annually based on the climate. [7] Hunting is a major cause of death for the yellow-billed duck with past analysis showing over 25% of duck deaths were due to shooting. [3]
The redhead is a pochard, a diving duck specially adapted to foraging underwater. Their legs are placed further back on the body, which makes walking on land difficult. The webbing on their feet is larger than dabbling ducks and their bills are broader to facilitate underwater foraging. In addition, pochards have a lobed hind toe. [7]
The New Zealand scaup is a diving duck which dives to look for aquatic plants, small fish, water snails, mussels and insects. [ 14 ] [ 13 ] It is sometimes seen with the Australian coot ( Fulica atra ); it is thought that the scaup takes advantage of the food stirred up by the coots as they fossick for shrimps. [ 13 ]