Velvet Scoter Call MP3s
Once an important quarry sea duck in Northwestern Europe, the Velvet Scoter has declined sharply enough to be rated Vulnerable by the IUCN, and hunting has been curtailed or closed in most range countries as a result. These recordings are best suited to identification and personal listening rather than assumed hunting use.
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Recordings (3)
About this species
A duck of the Anatidae family measuring roughly 54 cm, the Velvet Scoter (Melanitta fusca) is unmistakable — a heavy sea-duck, sooty-black save for a flashing white wing patch in flight. A true sea-duck, it winters in loose rafts over shallow inshore waters.
Largely silent, it gives only a low, growling note in display flocks. It dives deep for mussels and other shellfish, swallowing them whole. It rides the swell offshore, diving through breaking waves to feed. Its far-ranging populations link the breeding lakes of northern Europe with the wintering wetlands of the Mediterranean and North Africa.
Legal use
The Velvet Scoter is now classed as Vulnerable by the IUCN due to steep population declines in its Northwestern European and Caucasus breeding range, and it is covered by an AEWA International Single Species Action Plan aimed at reducing hunting mortality and bycatch across its main flyway. Several countries, including Denmark, currently have no open hunting season on the species under national law, and other European range states have similarly closed or heavily restricted Velvet Scoter hunting in recent years, though the exact legal mechanism and status (permanent ban versus indefinitely closed season) differs by country and can be hard to verify precisely from public sources. Given this unsettled, country-specific picture and the strong conservation case against hunting this species in most of its range, you should not assume Velvet Scoter is legal quarry anywhere without checking current national rules first. See our full country-by-country disclaimer for the latest status, as this is one of the fastest-changing legal situations among duck species we cover.