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The UK Bird Atlas

Scaup (Aythya marila)Where and when to see it in the UK

Winter visitor · reporting peaks January · Ducks, Swans, and Geese · BOU category AF

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Scaup (Aythya marila)
Chuck Homler d/b/a Focus On Wildlife, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Scaup: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Scaup has been recorded in 763 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (26%) in records to 2026. Winter visitor in the UK. Its strongest squares are in England, Scotland and Wales. Reporting peaks in January.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
19% or more of visits
High
4% to 19%
Moderate
1% to 4%
Low
under 1%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 100%2%Low
February 85%1%Very high
March 65%1%Very high
April 32%<1%Low
May 6%<1%Low
June 1%<1%Very high
July 6%<1%Very high
August 7%<1%Low
September 16%<1%Low
October 45%<1%Moderate
November 66%1%Very high
December 76%1%Very high

Squares with the highest reporting rate in January

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
NH77Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NJ02Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NK06Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high
NO45Angus, Scotland100%Very high
NS88Falkirk, Scotland100%Very high
NT27City of Edinburgh, Scotland100%Very high
NX95Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland100%Very high
NY26Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland100%Very high
NZ32County Durham, England100%Very high
NZ42Stockton-on-Tees, England100%Very high

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.