Lesser scaup duller and have hardly any white at the bill base. Both sexes have white secondary remiges, a blue-grey bill with a black "nail" at the tip and grey feet; the drakes have a bright yellow iris, while that of females is orange or amber and that of immatures is brown. Downy hatchlings look much like those of related species, with dark brown upperparts and pale buff underparts, chin, supercilium and back spots. These birds are not very vocal, at least compared to dabbling ducks. Hens give the namesake discordant "scaup, scaup" call; in courtship drakes produce weak whistles. Hens vocalize
Bird vocalization and prevent an energetically costly fight . In birds with song repertoires, individuals may share the same song type and use these song types for more complex communication. Some birds will respond to a shared song type with a song-type match (i.e. with the same song type). This may be an aggressive signal, however results are mixed. Birds may also interact using repertoire-matches, wherein a bird responds with a song type that is in its rival's repertoire but is not the song that it is currently singing. This may be a less aggressive act than song-type matching. Communication through bird