Common scoter
size:
44-54 centimeters; 79-90 centimeters wingspan
color (adults):
male: all black, except yellow by nostrils
female: brown with pale cheeks
food:
in salt water: shellfish such as spisula, crustaceans
in fresh water: aquatic insects, small fish
threats:
overfishing
Dutch status:
migratory and winter guest
habitat
sea and coast; nests in freshwater regions
reproduction:
6-8 eggs
life span:
maximum known age: + 16 years
special nature:
known to dive as deep as 30 meters for food
- Dut: Zwarte Zee-eend
- Eng: Common Scoter
- Fren: Macreuse noire
- Ger: Trauerente
- Dan: Sortand
- Nor: Svartand
- Frisian: Swarte Séein
- Ital: Orchetto marino
- Lat: Melanitta nigra
print
- Common Scoter, Jeroen Reneerkens (jeroenreneerkens@hetnet.nl
Common scoters
The Dutch name for the common scoter is actually more appropriate: black sea duck. It is in fact the only true black duck. At least as far as the males go. Females are dark brown.They eat shellfish, which they catch by diving down to the sea bottom. They swallow them whole and break them open with their strong stomach muscles. Common scoters are often seen in large groups along the coast, particularly in the winter. Shellfish fishermen fishing for spisula use the presence of the common scoter to find the spisula banks.
- Distribution and habitat
- Distribution of the common scoter, North Sea, Ecomare
Source: Important bird areas for s
The common scoter broods in northern Europe in freshwater regions. You find them the rest of the year mostly at sea, in a strip along the coast where the shellfish banks lie.
- Protection
WWW
See also
Info
Copyright Ecomare
