Bird
Surf Scoter
Melanitta perspicillata
A winter visitor to Louisiana, found in 15 of 64 parishes and 5 habitats.
- Here
- Winter
- Nesting
- Not known to nest here
- Range
- 15 of 64 parishes
- Habitats
- 5

At a glance
- Group
- Birds
- Here
- Winter
- Nesting
- Not known to nest here
- Range
- 15 of 64 parishes
- Habitats
- 5
- Habitat models
- Winter
Where it lives
The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.
Habitats in Louisiana 5
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.
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.
Still water and its edges: ponds, lakes, millponds and reservoirs.
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 (29)
Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Louisiana.
- Open Water (Aquaculture) Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Winter.
- Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Winter.
- Unconsolidated Shore Winter.
- Southeast Florida Beach Winter.
- South Florida Shell Hash Beach Winter.
- Florida Panhandle Beach Vegetation Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach Winter.
- Southwest Florida Beach Winter.
- Texas Coastal Bend Beach Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Xeric River Dune Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Winter.
- Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt Marsh Winter.
- Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Large Natural Lakeshore Winter.
- South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh Winter.
- Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh Winter.
- Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Central Florida Herbaceous Pondshore Winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Depression Pondshore Winter.
- South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Winter.
- Texas-Louisiana Coastal Prairie Slough Winter.
Seasons in Louisiana
- Winter: does not nest here, in 15 of 64 parishes.
Also found in this habitat
Plants 11
Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in Louisiana. Shared habitat, not food.
- Beach Morning-gloryIpomoea imperati
- Ipomoea pes-capraeIpomoea pes-caprae
- Beach Evening-primroseOenothera drummondii
- Bitter PanicgrassPanicum amarum
- Gulfdune PaspalumPaspalum monostachyum
- Shoreline Sea-purslaneSesuvium portulacastrum
- Saltmeadow CordgrassSpartina patens
- Coastal SandspurCenchrus spinifex
- Seashore DropseedSporobolus virginicus
- Gulf SearocketCakile geniculata
- Largeleaf PennywortHydrocotyle bonariensis
Wildlife 236
Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in Louisiana. Not sighting records.
- Great Horned OwlBubo virginianus
- Greater YellowlegsTringa melanoleuca
- Green HeronButorides virescens
- Horned GrebePodiceps auritus
- Least BitternIxobrychus exilis
- Least SandpiperCalidris minutilla
- Lesser Black-backed GullLarus fuscus
- Lesser YellowlegsTringa flavipes
- Little GullHydrocoloeus minutus
- Mottled DuckAnas fulvigula
- Northern PintailAnas acuta
- Northern Rough-winged SwallowStelgidopteryx serripennis
- OspreyPandion haliaetus
- Pied-billed GrebePodilymbus podiceps
- Red-breasted MerganserMergus serrator
- Ring-billed GullLarus delawarensis
- Roseate SpoonbillPlatalea ajaja
- Ruddy DuckOxyura jamaicensis
- Snowy EgretEgretta thula
- Stilt SandpiperCalidris himantopus
- Swamp SparrowMelospiza georgiana
- Tree SwallowTachycineta bicolor
- White-faced IbisPlegadis chihi
- Yellow-crowned Night-heronNyctanassa violacea
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)






























