![\"\"](\"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/files\/2012\/08\/Black-Scoters.jpg\")
<\/a>Black Scoters outside of the breeding season are often gregarious, sticking close together on the water either in a snake-like conga line or in a tight circle.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know of any other ducks that engage in this behavior.\u00a0 Perhaps you have seen Black Scoters in tight formations as well.\u00a0 This linear arrangement is seen in flight as well.\u00a0 A line of scoters will fly just above the sea, rising and falling as they pass over waves.<\/p>\nBlack Scoters are one of three scoters that occur regularly in Maine from the fall until the late spring.\u00a0 Surf Scoters and White-winged Scoters are the other two species. \u00a0\u00a0Black Scoters were once called Common Scoters in North American field guides.\u00a0 As a budding birder in North Carolina, I was perplexed by the name because Surf Scoters and White-winged Scoters were far more \u201ccommon\u201d than the Common Scoter.\u00a0 I like Black Scoter better.\u00a0 By the way, if you are wondering about the derivation of the word \u201cscoter\u201d, we don\u2019t know; its origin is unknown.<\/p>\n
Black Scoters are pretty easy to identify.\u00a0 Adults males are entirely black except for a yellow-orange protuberance on top of the bill.\u00a0 That protuberance can be seen from great distances through binoculars.\u00a0 Females are dark brown except for a distinctive two-toned head (dark cap and whitish cheeks).\u00a0\u00a0 Both sexes are fairly to distinguish from the other two scoters.<\/p>\n
Some controversy exists over whether the Black Scoters we have in North America are the same species as the ones occurring in Europe and Asia.\u00a0 The Old World form (subspecies or species) is called the Common Scoter.<\/p>\n
Black Scoters winter along both coasts of North America, from the Aleutians to \u00a0the Baja Peninsula on the west coast and Newfoundland to the central Texas coast in the east.\u00a0 Despite the broad distribution, Black Scoters are one of our least known ducks.\u00a0 The main reason for this lack of information stems from the highly disjunct and limited breeding range.\u00a0 These scoters nest on lakes in northwestern Alaska and in northern Quebec.\u00a0 Lots remains to be learned about their breeding behavior and ecology.<\/p>\n
Black Scoters dive for their food but are not chasing fish as many birders assume.\u00a0 Rather, they are bottom feeders.\u00a0 In freshwater, Black Scoters feed mainly on aquatic insects with a particular fondness for caddisfly larvae.\u00a0 In marine waters, the diet is mostly bivalves (clams and mussels) and snails.\u00a0 Scoters usually feed in waters less than 30 feet deep.\u00a0 Once at the bottom, they may take mussels or snails on the surface or excavate the sediment to extract buried clams.\u00a0 It\u2019s no surprise they need to be in fairly shallow water.<\/p>\n
Black Scoters are powerful divers.\u00a0 On the surface of the water with their wings closed, they seem to leap above the water and neatly slice into the water, disappearing in the blink of an eye.\u00a0 Sometimes they propel themselves with their feet and, in some populations, they will use half-extended wings to help propel them to the bottom.<\/p>\n
Which brings us back to the beginning.\u00a0 Why arrange yourself in tight lines or circles?\u00a0 If scoters were fish-eaters, perhaps they could herd fish into a tight ball.\u00a0 But no one needs to herd sessile mussels or slow-moving snails.\u00a0 We have to simply accept that fact that Black Scoters are sociable creatures.<\/p>\n
[Originally published on May 27, 2012]<\/p>\n\n
I got fooled again.\u00a0 My wife and I were recently looking out over Johnson Bay, a small embayment in Lubec, that is a part of Cobscook Bay.\u00a0 I looked out over the water and saw a long string of dark material.\u00a0 I thought it was a line of algal wrack, carried offshore by the powerful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[420],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":506,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions\/506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}