Lesser or Greater Scaup? Meeting the ID challenge head on. Here on this scaup, you can see the black nail is relatively small and the narrow bill is fairly straight sided. The head is narrow with only small bulges of muscles at the base of the bill. The body does not give you the impression of being bulky. This male Lesser Scaup was photographed at TVA Lake, Ensley Bottoms in Shelby County, TN. Here in the winter you can see a flock of thousands of Lesser Scaup up close with good numbers of Greater in the mix and study the differences and plumages till you get a good FEEL for these two species.