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The UK Bird Atlas

Velvet Scoter (Melanitta fusca)Where and when to see it in the UK

Winter visitor · reporting peaks November · Ducks, Swans, and Geese · BOU category AF

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Velvet Scoter (Melanitta fusca)
D. Gordon E. Robertson, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Velvet Scoter: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Velvet Scoter has been recorded in 405 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (14%) in records to 2026. Winter visitor in the UK. Its strongest squares are in England, Scotland and Wales. Reporting peaks in November.

Conservation status: Vulnerable (IUCN Red List, VU)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
15% or more of visits
High
4% to 15%
Moderate
1% to 4%
Low
under 1%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 75%<1%Low
February 55%<1%Very high
March 34%<1%Very high
April 25%<1%Low
May 15%<1%Low
June 5%<1%Low
July 25%<1%Low
August 24%<1%Moderate
September 32%<1%Moderate
October 55%<1%Moderate
November 100%1%High
December 82%<1%Very high

Squares with the highest reporting rate in November

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
HU31Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
HU59Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
NJ26Moray, Scotland100%Very high
NJ36Moray, Scotland100%Very high
NK06Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high
NK14Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high
NT17City of Edinburgh, Scotland100%Very high
NT25Midlothian, Scotland100%Very high
SH50Gwynedd, Wales100%Very high
SJ18Flintshire, Wales100%Very high

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.