Scaup

Scaup
Aythya marila
[Linnaeus, 1761]

The scaup always makes me think of a tufted duck that has lost its tuft due to large waves on the sea. It is similar to a tufted duck after all, but does prefer the sea to inland bodies of water.

It also differs from the far more oft-encountered tufted duck in that the drake has a distinctively coloured back - a mottled grey affair - and this gives the scaup its very apt very descriptive, wholly Greek scientific name.

Think of a bonfire that has burned almost out - and picture the embers as they lose their glow...

Aythya (like the tufted duck) has a stem in aithuia - "a diving waterbird as described by Aristotle".
marila has its root in the Greek word marile meaning "charcoal embers".

So... the scaup, at least scientifically, is known as the very descriptive:

"charcoal-ember diving duck"