Alaska Native Knowledge Network Resources for compiling and exchanging information related to Alaska Native knowledge systems and ways of knowing.

Greater Scaup : Greater Scaup Kep’alek Take a close look at this duck’s bill and you’ll see why some people call it “blue bill.” But take an even closer look at its plumage and you’ll see why the duck’s Yup’ik name is Kep’alek. Where the black joins the white, it is such a clean line that it looks as though the two colors were cut with an uluaq and perfectly spliced together. The Greater scaup, like its slightly smaller cousin, the Lesser scaup, is a diving duck. Most of the year it feeds underwater, using its feet to dive in saltwater bays and estuaries for shellfish (mussels, clams, etc.). During summer, however, it acts more like a dabbling duck (mallard, wigeon) because it nests near the shallow water shores of lakes, ponds and marshes. Then its diet changes to freshwater snails, aquatic insects and crustaceans, tadpoles, small fishes and plant foods, such as pondweeds, wild celery, sedges and other grasses and their seeds. Scaups begin courting mostly in late winter and early spring while still wintering down south and during migration north to their nesting grounds. I saw some of that behavior this spring in Fairbanks on the Chena River during our cold spring when thousands of migrating ducks were dammed up here waiting for the snow on their nesting grounds to melt. Often several males courted one female, sharply throwing their heads back, bowing with the tip of their bill lowered to the water, then raised high, and flicking their wings and tail while uttering a soft, fast whistling, weew-weew-whew. The female responded each time with a low, arrrrr. Since most blue bills already have mates by the time they reach the YK Delta, they get right down to the business of nesting. The female chooses the site and builds the nest in a shallow depression and lines it with dead plant material and her own down. Several females may nest close together in a loose colony. As soon as his mate has laid the last of her 5-11 olive-buff colored eggs and begins to brood them the male duck takes off never to return for large freshwater lakes or saltwater estuaries. After the mother duck incubates the eggs for almost a month, they all hatch at pretty much the same time and the ducklings follow her to water shortly afterward. Two or more families may join together, tended by one or more females. The young feed themselves and take their first flight a month and a half after hatching. There are three families of 24 baby blue bills living on one of my favorite ponds just down the road, and I’ve enjoyed watching them slowly grow bigger each day I stop by. It’s especially been fun seeing them suddenly dive underwater, then pop up like little brown bubbles while the wigeon and mallard babies keep on paddling placidly across the surface of the water. The Greater scaup is one of those birds that has many common names, such as: blackhead, big blackhead, big bluebill, black-neck, blue-billed wigeon, broadbill, bullhead, common scaup, floating fowl, flock duck, gray-back, greater bluebill, green-head, mussel-duck, raft duck, shuffler, and troop-fowl. The name “scaup” probably comes from the English term that alludes to ducks that feed on scaups or scalps – beds of shellfishes. Or it may have come from one of the duck’s characteristic calls, scaup! Its scientific name, Aythya marila, means “seabird of charcoal embers,” referring to its black head (with a green iridescence in the sun), neck, breast and tail. A cool fact about this bird is that, as a diving duck, it has small, pointed wings that make it easier for underwater swimming. But its heavy wing-loading (ratio of small wings to big body) requires it to run across the top of the water to build momentum before taking off. Dabblers like wigeons and mallards have larger wing areas relative to their body weight, and can therefore leap directly from the water into the air. » List of Yupik Birds

The University of Alaska Fairbanks is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employer, educational institution and provider is a part of the University of Alaska system. Learn more about UA's notice of nondiscriminitation.