Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Anseriformes > Anatidae > Aythya > Aythya affinis

Aythya affinis (Lesser Scaup)

Synonyms: Fuligula affinis (homotypic); Marila affinis; Nyroca affinis
Language: French; Spanish

Wikipedia Abstract

The lesser scaup (Aythya affinis) is a small North American diving duck that migrates south as far as Central America in winter. 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. It is apparently a very close relative of the Holarctic greater scaup or "bluebill" (A. marila), with which it forms a superspecies. The scientific name is derived from Ancient Greek aithuia an unidentified seabird mentioned by authors including Hesychius and Aristotle, and Latin, affinis "related to", from its resemblance to the greater scaup.
View Wikipedia Record: Aythya affinis

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
0
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
4
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 1.84457
EDGE Score: 1.04541
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Clutch Size [6]  10
Clutches / Year [4]  1
Fledging [2]  48 days
Global Population (2017 est.) [3]  3,800,000
Incubation [4]  24 days
Mating System [7]  Monogamy
Maximum Longevity [4]  18 years
Snout to Vent Length [2]  17 inches (43 cm)
Water Biome [1]  Lakes and Ponds, Rivers and Streams, Temporary Pools, Coastal, Brackish Water
Wing Span [8]  28 inches (.72 m)
Adult Weight [2]  1.755 lbs (796 g)
Birth Weight [4]  31 grams
Female Weight [2]  1.653 lbs (750 g)
Male Weight [2]  1.859 lbs (843 g)
Weight Dimorphism [2]  12.4 %
Breeding Habitat [3]  Boreal forests, Prairie wetlands
Wintering Geography [3]  Widespread
Wintering Habitat [3]  Coastal marine, Freshwater lakes and rivers
Diet [5]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Granivore, Herbivore
Diet - Invertibrates [5]  20 %
Diet - Plants [5]  50 %
Diet - Seeds [5]  30 %
Forages - Underwater [5]  100 %
Female Maturity [4]  1 year
Male Maturity [4]  1 year

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

+ Click for partial list (100)Full list (202)

Ecosystems

Important Bird Areas

Name Location  IBA Criteria   Website   Climate   Land Use 
Cabral Lagoon Dominican Republic A1, A2, A4i, A4iii
Oak Lake/Plum Lakes Area Canada A4i, A4iii
Old Crow Flats Canada A4i, A4iii

Biodiversity Hotspots

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Predators

Haliaeetus leucocephalus (Bald Eagle)[9]
Poliocitellus franklinii (Franklin's ground squirrel)[11]

Consumers

Range Map

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 2Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 3Partners in Flight Avian Conservation Assessment Database, version 2017. Accessed on January 2018.
♦ 4de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 5Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 6Jetz W, Sekercioglu CH, Böhning-Gaese K (2008) The Worldwide Variation in Avian Clutch Size across Species and Space PLoS Biol 6(12): e303. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060303
♦ 7Terje Lislevand, Jordi Figuerola, and Tamás Székely. 2007. Avian body sizes in relation to fecundity, mating system, display behavior, and resource sharing. Ecology 88:1605
♦ 8del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 9Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 10Patterns of prey use by lesser scaup Aythya affinis (Aves) and diet overlap with fishes during spring migration, Kimberly A. Strand, Steven R. Chipps, Sharon N. Kahara, Kenneth F. Higgins, Spencer Vaa, Hydrobiologia (2008) 598:389–398
♦ 11Spermophilus franklinii, Andrea C. Ostroff and Elmer J. Finck, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 724, pp. 1–5 (2003)
♦ 12Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0