Velvet Scoter

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Velvet Scoter in the UK

The Velvet Scoter is a winter visitor and does not breed in Britain. About 3,350 winter around UK coasts, arriving from late summer to November from breeding grounds in Scandinavia and western Siberia, and mostly leaving by April. Most are off eastern Scotland, with smaller numbers down the North Sea coast and along the south coast of England. A few non-breeders stay through the summer. It is Red-listed in the UK and classed as globally Vulnerable. Threats include drowning in fishing nets, oil pollution, hunting on its wider range and disturbance from offshore development.

Where and when to see a Velvet Scoter

Scan the sea from October to March. The Firth of Forth is the main area: watch from the sea wall at Musselburgh or from Gullane and Aberlady Bay in East Lothian. St Andrews Bay in Fife, north-east England and the north Norfolk coast also hold birds. Find a raft of Common Scoters and work through it with a telescope. A calm sea with the light behind you is essential, and a rising tide brings flocks closer. Wait for birds to flap or fly, as the white wing patch settles it.

Habitat, diet and field notes

Habitat: Coastal seas (winter).
Diet: Molluscs.
Field note: White wing-flash in flight.

How to identify a Velvet Scoter

Bigger and bulkier than a Common Scoter, with a thick neck and a long, wedge-shaped head and bill. The white patch on the rear of the inner wing shows clearly in flight and when the bird flaps. On the water it is often hidden or appears as a small white line along the side. Males are black with a small white mark under the eye and yellow-orange sides to the bill. Females are dark brown with two round pale smudges on the face. It dives with a flick that half opens the wings, showing the white.

Call and song

Silent in Britain for practical purposes. Wintering birds sit well offshore and any calls are lost in the wind and waves. Identify it by sight. Heard something you cannot place? Bird Hear identifies UK birds from a 10 second recording, free in your browser.

Confusion species

• Common Scoter: Common Scoter is smaller with all-dark wings; females have a whole pale cheek below a dark cap, not two pale spots.
• Surf Scoter: Surf Scoter has all-dark wings; the male has white patches on the forehead and nape and a swollen multi-coloured bill.
• Common Eider: A female or young male Eider is larger, with a long sloping wedge profile and barred brown or patchy plumage.

Related guide UK winter wildfowl.

Conservation status and Birdedex points

In the Birdedex the Velvet Scoter is a Rare tier bird, worth +8 points when you log one. It is Red-listed in Birds of Conservation Concern 5, the highest level of concern in the UK. It is protected under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, so it is an offence to disturb it at or near the nest. We blur the location of every sighting of this species.

Recent UK sightings

Similar birds

• Surf ScoterRare · Coastal seas (winter vagrant)
• Common Scoter (eastern)Epic · Coastal seas (very rare)
• Common ScoterUncommon · Inshore sea (winter)
• Stejneger's ScoterLegendary · Sea
• White-winged ScoterLegendary · Sea
• Long-tailed DuckRare · Coastal seas (winter)

Velvet Scoter: quick answers

Where can I see a Velvet Scoter in the UK?

The outer Firth of Forth and St Andrews Bay are the most reliable places in winter. On the English east coast, look through scoter flocks off Northumberland and north Norfolk. Elsewhere they turn up in ones and twos, and inland birds on reservoirs are unusual.

What is the difference between a Velvet Scoter and a Common Scoter?

The white wing patch. Velvet has white secondaries that flash in flight; Common has none. On the sea, Velvet is larger with a longer, flatter head profile. Males show white by the eye, and females show two pale face spots where a female Common has one large pale cheek.

What does a Velvet Scoter eat?

Shellfish, mainly mussels, cockles and other bivalves, taken by diving to the seabed in shallow coastal water. It swallows them whole and crushes the shells in its gizzard. It also takes crabs, sea urchins and small fish.

Kit that helps

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