Males are slightly larger than females: from 40.4 to 45.1 cm in males and 39.1 to 43.4 cm in females, and from 700 to 1200 g in males and 600 to 1100 g in females. Lesser scaup are medium-sized diving ducks. ( Austin, et al., 1998 Lindeman and Clark, 1999) Lesser scaup nest in wetland meadow or grassland areas near ponds. They are found in freshwater or slightly brackish wetland areas, including ponds, lakes, river impoundments, and coastal bays. They are most abundant in ponds with high amphipod abundance and intact wetland margins. They are found throughout the year on semi-permanent or seasonal wetlands with emergent vegetation (such as cattails, Typhus, or bulrushes, Scirpus) or submergent vegetation (pondweed, Potamogeton, water milfoil, Myriophyllum spicatum, hornwort, Ceratophyllum demersum, or muskgrass, Chara). Lesser scaup are reliant on wetland habitats for foraging and breeding. Occasional birds are seen in winter in the western Palearctic, Greenland, British Isles, Canary Islands, and the Netherlands. Lesser scaup also winter throughout Mexico and Central America, the Antilles, and the Hawaiian Islands.
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They are also found in the southern Great Lakes region and Ohio and Mississippi river drainages. In winter they are found in appropriate habitat in the Pacific coastal states, the southern states, including Colorado, the southeast, Florida, and along the Atlantic coast to Massachusetts. They breed in interior boreal forests and parklands of Alaska and Canada and into the United States in North and South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, northeastern Washington, and the Klamath region of southern Oregon and northeastern California. Lesser scaup are an American species of diving duck.