The Surf Scoter is a sea duck that nests in northern North America and spends the rest of its annual cycle mostly near ocean coasts.
Males are black with a large orange, white, and black bill and white patches on the face. Females are dark brown and usually have two white facial patches.
Surf Scoters sometimes feed on Pacific herring eggs in early spring. In the Strait of Georgia, western Canada, birds moved from their usual winter clam-feeding areas to coastal herring spawning sites. They dived to eat eggs deposited on rocks and vegetation. The seasonal food pulse coincided with changes in feeding location and diving pattern.
Radio-telemetry during the winters and springs of 2002–2004 provided winter observations from 29 Surf Scoters and spawning-period observations from 20. The mean proportion of daytime observation time spent underwater fell from 23% in winter to 11% during herring spawning. Yet individual dives became longer and dives occurred less often. A longer individual dive therefore coincided with less total time underwater per hour. The birds fed on herring eggs with a different diving rhythm from their winter pattern.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
Washington’s wildlife agency identifies exclusion of sea ducks by some aquaculture practices and development impacts on breeding and wintering habitat as concerns for Surf Scoters. Recommended actions include identifying and protecting important foraging areas. The agency also conducts annual winter aerial surveys of sea ducks in Puget Sound and nearby waters to monitor abundance and distribution.