Velvet scoter

Voice

Largely silent away from the breeding grounds. In display the male whistles a soft, plaintive, rising pyu-ee while the female gives a hoarse grating brah-brah. At sea you are far more likely to hear the rush of wings from low-flying parties; the display calls belong mainly to March and April.

Identification

A large, heavy duck with a long wedge-shaped head-and-bill profile and a steep forehead. The drake is velvet black with a small white hook below and behind the eye, orange-red feet and a yellow-sided bill with a black knob at the base. The female is sooty brown with two pale patches on the cheek. Both sexes show a white secondary panel, glimpsed even when swimming birds flap.

Confusion species

Common Scoter is the one that matters. The white secondary panel is decisive but is usually hidden on swimming birds, so wait until they flush or stretch. Velvet is also bulkier and more angular-headed, and the female shows two separate pale cheek patches rather than one evenly pale cheek.

Habitat

Winters over shallow coastal seas with sand and shellfish banks, usually a little further offshore and in deeper water than Common Scoter. Breeds on boreal lakes, in the birch zone and on Baltic islets. Dives for mussels, crabs and other bottom-dwelling animals.

Range and movements

A breeder of Fennoscandia, the Baltic and north-west Siberia, with a separate small population in the Caucasus. It winters mainly in the Baltic and scattered through the North Sea; in the Netherlands it is a scarce winter visitor off the Holland coast and the Wadden islands, usually among Common Scoter. In Spain it is a genuine rarity on the north coast.

• Resident
• Breeding (summer)
• Winter
• Passage
• Migration direction
• dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

Where and when to look

Seawatch from the Holland or Zeeland coast in November and December, ideally in a firm north-westerly and during the first hours after sunrise. In flat calm weather it pays instead to scope the resting rafts offshore and wait for birds to stretch their wings.

Conservation status

Assessed as Vulnerable after a steep decline of the wintering Baltic population. Bycatch in gillnets, oil pollution, deterioration of shellfish banks and nest predation by mink and gulls weigh heaviest. Disturbance from shipping and offshore construction adds pressure in the wintering areas.