The velvet scoter was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Anas fusca.

[3][4] The velvet scoter is now one of six species placed in the genus Melanitta that was introduced in 1822 by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie.

It is a relatively large sea duck with a thick neck, a long broad bill and a pointed tail.

[9] They breed in northern Europe, from Norway to the Yenisey River in central Siberia and also northeast Kazakhstan.

[8] Lake Tabatskuri in the region of Samtskhe-Javakheti, Georgia, holds the last breeding population of velvet scoters in the Caucasus.

Competition for nesting locations, predation on velvet scoters by gulls, and disturbance by fishing activities were identified as contributing factors to reproductivity rates that were considered as "poor".

[11] The lined nest is built on the ground close to the sea, lakes or rivers, in woodland or tundra.