OTHER NAMES: Skunk-headed Coot
Latin Etymology: Melanitta ("black duck") perspicillata ("conspicuous")
Adult male Surf Scoter (Melanitta perspicillata) at San Francisco, California - September 2022
Featured Subspecies: N/A
Weight: 950-1700g / Length: 44-48cm / Wingspan: 77cm
NO UK STATUS / IUCN Red List: Least Concern
A large sea-duck species found breeding around the coasts of Canada and Alaska, they breed on freshwater lakes. This bird was a vagrant that had turned up along the dam end of Rutland Water where it was associated with a group of mostly male tufted ducks. This bird is apparently a first winter bird, though as with the most duck species the adult male is a far more dramatic bird with a bizarre oversized beak coloured white, yellow red, pink with a huge black blotch.
Related Species:
Order: Anseriformes
Family: Anatidae
Genus: Melanitta
SUBSPECIES: none - monotypic
- Sighting Locations -
UNITED KINGDOM - A rare vagrant.
- A single vagrant bird seen at Rutland Water (December 2016)
UNITED STATES
Breeds in Alaska, Winters around almost the entire continental US Coastline
- CALIFORNIA 2022 TRIP: Seen at San Francisco and Berkeley
Breeds in Alaska, Winters around almost the entire continental US Coastline
- CALIFORNIA 2022 TRIP: Seen at San Francisco and Berkeley
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