Bird
Surf Scoter
Melanitta perspicillata
A winter visitor to Florida, found in 34 of 67 counties and 9 habitats.
- Here
- Winter
- Nesting
- Not known to nest here
- Range
- 34 of 67 counties
- Habitats
- 9

At a glance
- Group
- Birds
- Here
- Winter
- Nesting
- Not known to nest here
- Range
- 34 of 67 counties
- Habitats
- 9
- Habitat models
- Winter
Where it lives
The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.
Habitats in Florida 9
Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.


Open sand of beaches, dunes and the hollows between them.
Coastal tidal marshes (salinity not stated)
Tidal marshes of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts where the source does not say whether the water is fresh, brackish or salt. A stated salinity files the marsh under freshwater tidal marshes or salt and brackish marshes instead.
Depression ponds and limesinks
Shallow ponds in Coastal Plain depressions, such as limesinks and the ponds in some Carolina bays, that rise and fall with the seasons.
Disturbed and introduced wetlands
Wet ground taken over by weedy or introduced plants after disturbance, such as common reed, Chinese tallow or tamarisk stands; the upland counterpart is roadsides, fields and disturbed ground.
Marshes along tidal rivers where the water is fresh but rises and falls with the tide.
Coastal marshes flooded by salty or brackish tides.
Salt and brackish open water of sounds, bays and estuaries, with the mud and sand flats and seagrass beds that tides cover and uncover; the vegetated marsh is salt and brackish marshes.
Other habitats in its models (14)
Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Florida.
- Open Water (Aquaculture) Winter.
- Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Winter.
- Unconsolidated Shore Winter.
- Upper Texas Coast Beach Winter.
- Louisiana Beach Winter.
- Texas Coastal Bend Beach Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Xeric River Dune Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt Marsh Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Winter.
- South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Winter.
- Texas-Louisiana Coastal Prairie Slough Winter.
Seasons in Florida
- Winter: does not nest here, in 34 of 67 counties.
Also found in this habitat
Plants 171
Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in Florida. Shared habitat, not food.
- Black NeedlerushJuncus roemerianus
- Saltmarsh CordgrassSpartina alterniflora
- Groundsel-treeBaccharis halimifolia
- Seashore SaltgrassDistichlis spicata
- MaidencaneHymenachne hemitomon
- Common WaxmyrtleMorella cerifera
- Shoreline Sea-purslaneSesuvium portulacastrum
- Sea OatsUniola paniculata
- Blue Water-hyssopBacopa caroliniana
- Sea OxeyeBorrichia frutescens
- Tropical WaxweedCuphea aspera
- Yaupon HollyIlex vomitoria
- PickerelweedPontederia cordata
- Live OakQuercus virginiana
- Coastal Plain WillowSalix caroliniana
- Common Three Square BulrushSchoenoplectus pungens
- Serenoa repensSerenoa repens
- Saltmeadow CordgrassSpartina patens
- Southern Wild-riceZizaniopsis miliacea
- Red MapleAcer rubrum
- Hairy BluestemAndropogon glomeratus var. hirsutior
- Batis maritimaBatis maritima
- Coastal SearocketCakile lanceolata
- ButtonbushCephalanthus occidentalis
Wildlife 256
Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in Florida. Not sighting records.
- Spotted SandpiperActitis macularius
- Turkey VultureCathartes aura
- Virginia RailRallus limicola
- White IbisEudocimus albus
- Wood StorkMycteria americana
- Yellow-breasted ChatIcteria virens
- American CrowCorvus brachyrhynchos
- AnhingaAnhinga anhinga
- Black-bellied Whistling-DuckDendrocygna autumnalis
- Common LoonGavia immer
- Common TernSterna hirundo
- DunlinCalidris alpina
- Eastern KingbirdTyrannus tyrannus
- Eurasian WigeonAnas penelope
- European StarlingSturnus vulgaris
- Fish CrowCorvus ossifragus
- Glossy IbisPlegadis falcinellus
- King RailRallus elegans
- Laughing GullLeucophaeus atricilla
- Least TernSternula antillarum
- Long-billed CurlewNumenius americanus
- MerlinFalco columbarius
- Northern Rough-winged SwallowStelgidopteryx serripennis
- Red-throated LoonGavia stellata
NatureServe Explorer, CC BY 4.0. USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.
Sources
- USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models (2001)
- USGS GAP winter habitat model for Surf Scoter Slow streams only
- USGS Gap Analysis Project range maps (2001), modeled by watershed; migratory gives no dates
- NatureServe Explorer (CC BY 4.0), habitat names
- US Census TIGER/Line counties
- Names follow the USGS Gap Analysis Project (2001)








































