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Bird

Lesser Scaup

Aythya affinis

A winter visitor to North Carolina, found in all 100 counties and 10 habitats.

Here
Winter and on migration
Nesting
Not known to nest here
Range
All 100 counties
Habitats
10

At a glance

Group
Birds
Here
Winter and on migration
Nesting
Not known to nest here
Range
All 100 counties
Habitats
10
Habitat models
Winter

Where it lives

The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.

Habitats in North Carolina 10

Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.

1 of 10

Ponds, lakes and their shores

Georgia pond and emergent wetland
WinterOpen Water (Fresh); Atlantic Coastal Plain Large Natural LakeshoreRegional / representative. Shown: Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, Georgia; representative pond ecosystem, a neighboring state.Georgia pond and emergent wetland, Robert 'Bob' Hynes, 1997. Public domain. Source record.

Swamps

View, Dismal Swamp, North Carolina
WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Streamhead Seepage Swamp - Pocosin - and Baygall; Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Plain Swamp Systems; Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Tidal Wooded Swamp; Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Forested Wetland; Southern Piedmont/Ridge and Valley Upland Depression SwampNamed place / source context. Great Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, as titled by Museum of Fine Arts Boston; nineteenth-century artistic interpretationView, Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, Regis Francois Gignoux, 1850. Public domain. Source record.

Coastal dunes and beaches

Open sand of beaches, dunes and the hollows between them.

WinterUnconsolidated Shore (Beach/Dune); Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain Interdunal Wetland

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.

WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland; Atlantic Coastal Plain Depression Pondshore

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.

Winter

Freshwater tidal marshes

Marshes along tidal rivers where the water is fresh but rises and falls with the tide.

WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh

Pocosins and bay forests

Dense evergreen shrub wetlands and bay forests on wet, acid peat of the Coastal Plain.

WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Peatland Pocosin; Atlantic Coastal Plain Streamhead Seepage Swamp - Pocosin - and Baygall

Salt and brackish marshes

Coastal marshes flooded by salty or brackish tides.

WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh

Seeps and springs

Places where groundwater keeps the soil or rock wet, such as seepage slopes and spring runs.

WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Streamhead Seepage Swamp - Pocosin - and Baygall

Sounds, bays and tidal flats

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.

WinterOpen Water (Brackish/Salt)
Other habitats in its models (34)

Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in North Carolina. Those recorded in North Carolina first, the rest by region.

Elsewhere in the South (25)
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Wooded Swamp Winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Xeric River Dune Winter.
  • Central Florida Herbaceous Pondshore Winter.
  • Central Florida Herbaceous Seep Winter.
  • Cumberland Riverscour Winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Tidal Wooded Swamp Winter.
  • Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Winter.
  • Mississippi River Bottomland Depression Winter.
  • Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • South Florida Bayhead Swamp Winter.
  • South Florida Cypress Dome Winter.
  • South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh Winter.
  • South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Winter.
  • South Florida Mangrove Swamp Winter.
  • South Florida Wet Marl Prairie Winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Herbaceous Seepage Bog Winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Hydric Hammock Winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp Winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Cypress Dome Winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall Winter.
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Large River Swamp Winter.
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Small Stream and River Forest Winter.
Northeast (2)
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt Marsh Winter.
Land cover and other classes (7)
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Winter.
  • Open Water (Aquaculture) Winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Nupea Modifier Winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Pine Modifier Winter.
  • Texas-Louisiana Coastal Prairie Slough Winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore Winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Winter.

All habitats

Seasons in North Carolina

  • Migratory: does not nest here, in 23 of 100 counties.
  • Winter: does not nest here, in 90 of 100 counties.

Food plants

Diet records by plant genus, from studies across North America. Not a record from this state. Plants matched by genus.

Native plants in these genera 117

Plant genera in its diet records (18)
  • Polygonum Seeds. 5 diet records. 5 native plants in North Carolina
  • Potamogeton Seeds and leaves. 5 diet records. 11 native plants in North Carolina
  • Scirpus Seeds. 4 diet records. 10 native plants in North Carolina
  • Sagittaria Seeds. 3 diet records. 13 native plants in North Carolina
  • Lemna Leaves. 2 diet records. 7 native plants in North Carolina
  • Bolboschoenus Seeds. 1 diet record. 2 native plants in North Carolina
  • Ceratophyllum Seeds. 1 diet record. 3 native plants in North Carolina
  • Chara Leaves. 1 diet record. 0 native plants in North Carolina
  • Cyperus Seeds. 1 diet record. 35 native plants in North Carolina
  • Dysphania Seeds. 1 diet record. 0 native plants in North Carolina
  • Myriophyllum Leaves. 1 diet record. 4 native plants in North Carolina
  • Najas Seeds. 1 diet record. 2 native plants in North Carolina
  • Nymphaea Seeds. 1 diet record. 1 native plant in North Carolina
  • Persicaria Seeds. 1 diet record. 13 native plants in North Carolina
  • Rumex Seeds. 1 diet record. 3 native plants in North Carolina
  • Schoenoplectus Seeds. 1 diet record. 6 native plants in North Carolina
  • Stuckenia Seeds. 1 diet record. 1 native plant in North Carolina
  • Zizania Leaves. 1 diet record. 1 native plant in North Carolina

Avian Diet Database (Hurlbert Lab), CC0 1.0.

Also found in its main habitats

Its main habitats in North Carolina, by how much of its habitat model each one is, with the birds most characteristic of each and the plants that grow wild there. Shared habitat, not food.

Swamps

Birds 69

Plants 329

All of swamps in North Carolina

Coastal dunes and beaches

Birds 112

Plants 132

All of coastal dunes and beaches in North Carolina

Depression ponds and limesinks

Birds 71

Plants 123

All of depression ponds and limesinks in North Carolina

USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.

Sources