Guide to North American Birds
Conservation status May have gone through a serious decline early in the 20th century, but now mostly stable or only slightly declining. Wintering concentrations are vulnerable to oil spills and other pollution.
Family Ducks and Geese
Habitat Ocean surf, salt bays, marinas; in summer, fresh Arctic lakes, tundra. Breeding habitat is near lakes and slow-moving rivers in far north, in sparsely forested or semi-open terrain, sometimes out on open tundra. In winter mostly on ocean in shallow bays or estuaries. Some may winter on Great Lakes, rarely on other bodies of fresh water.
This duck is common in winter on both coasts; on Pacific Coast, often seen around fishing piers and harbors. The male's strong head pattern earns the species the hunters' nickname of 'skunk-head coot.' When feeding, they usually spring forward and dive with the wings partly opened. Silent at most times of year.

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Feeding Behavior

Forages by diving and swimming underwater, propelled mainly by the feet, with the wings usually half-opened.


Eggs

5-9, usually about 7. Pale buff. Incubation is by female only, incubation period not known. Young: Leave nest and go to water shortly after hatching. Young are tended by female, but feed themselves. Age of young at first flight not well known.


Young

Leave nest and go to water shortly after hatching. Young are tended by female, but feed themselves. Age of young at first flight not well known.

Diet

Mostly mollusks. In addition to mollusks, also feeds on crustaceans, aquatic insects, small fishes, echinoderms, marine worms. Also eats some plant material, mainly pondweeds and sedges. Young eat mostly aquatic insects at first, also mollusks and some plant material, including sedges, pondweeds, and crowberries.


Nesting

Pairs are formed on winter range. Several males may surround one female in courtship. Displays of male include swimming back and forth rapidly with neck stretched upward, exaggerated bowing, short display flights; males may pursue female underwater. Nest site is often some distance away from water, on ground, well hidden under low tree branches or in dense grass clump. Nest (built by female) is a shallow depression lined with down.

Illustration © David Allen Sibley.
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Text © Kenn Kaufman, adapted from
Lives of North American Birds

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Migration

Migrates in flocks. When migrating overland to coastal wintering areas, usually flies high. Stopovers on lakes inland apparently are mostly for resting, not for feeding.

  • All Seasons - Common
  • All Seasons - Uncommon
  • Breeding - Common
  • Breeding - Uncommon
  • Winter - Common
  • Winter - Uncommon
  • Migration - Common
  • Migration - Uncommon

See a fully interactive migration map for this species on the Bird Migration Explorer.

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Songs and Calls

A low guttural croaking.
Audio © Lang Elliott, Bob McGuire, Kevin Colver, Martyn Stewart and others.
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How Climate Change Will Reshape the Range of the Surf Scoter

Audubon’s scientists have used 140 million bird observations and sophisticated climate models to project how climate change will affect this bird’s range in the future.

Zoom in to see how this species’s current range will shift, expand, and contract under increased global temperatures.

Climate Threats Near You
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Climate threats facing the Surf Scoter

Choose a temperature scenario below to see which threats will affect this species as warming increases. The same climate change-driven threats that put birds at risk will affect other wildlife and people, too.