Lesser scaup in their first or second summer. The oldest known individual reached an age of over 18 years. Before the start of the population decline (see below), about 57% of the lesser scaup nests failed each breeding season because the female was killed or the eggs were eaten or destroyed. The average brood size of nests where eggs hatched successfully was 8.33 hatchlings. Although the lesser scaup has the largest population of any species of diving duck in North America, their population has been steadily declining since the mid-1980s, and reached an all-time low in the early 21sh century. During breeding
What Bird is That? of "What Bird is That?" It was published in 1984 and incorporated all of Cayley’s paintings created over many years for his vision of releasing a “big bird book” and included a revised taxonomy. In the 53 years since its first edition, more than a hundred new bird species had been identified in Australia. Scientific names had been changed and groups of birds had been reordered. Lindsey brought "What Bird is That?" up-to-date with the latest birding conventions of the time, as well as contributing a valuable supplementary list of birds and a scholarly catalogue of Cayley’s paintings. The "Signature