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Bird

Surf Scoter

Melanitta perspicillata

A winter visitor to North Carolina, found in 19 of 100 counties and 8 habitats.

Here
Winter
Nesting
Not known to nest here
Range
19 of 100 counties
Habitats
8

At a glance

Group
Birds
Here
Winter
Nesting
Not known to nest here
Range
19 of 100 counties
Habitats
8
Habitat models
Winter

Where it lives

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

Habitats in North Carolina 8

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

1 of 8

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.

Coastal dunes and beaches

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

WinterUnconsolidated Shore (Beach/Dune)

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.

Winter

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 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

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

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 (25)

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 (18)
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach Winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Xeric River Dune Winter.
  • Central Florida Herbaceous Pondshore Winter.
  • Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • Florida Panhandle Beach Vegetation Winter.
  • Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Winter.
  • Louisiana Beach Winter.
  • Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh Winter.
  • South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Winter.
  • South Florida Shell Hash Beach Winter.
  • Southeast Florida Beach Winter.
  • Southwest Florida Beach Winter.
  • Texas Coastal Bend Beach Winter.
  • Upper Texas Coast Beach 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 (5)
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Winter.
  • Open Water (Aquaculture) Winter.
  • Texas-Louisiana Coastal Prairie Slough Winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore Winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Winter.

All habitats

Seasons in North Carolina

  • Winter: does not nest here, in 19 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 11

Plant genera in its diet records (2)
  • Potamogeton 1 diet record. 11 native plants in North Carolina
  • Zostera 1 diet record. 0 native plants 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.

Disturbed and introduced wetlands

Birds 120

Plants 23

All of disturbed and introduced wetlands in North Carolina

Freshwater tidal marshes

Birds 81

Plants 30

All of freshwater tidal marshes in North Carolina

Ponds, lakes and their shores

Birds 90

Plants 211

All of ponds, lakes and their shores in North Carolina

USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.

Sources