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Bird Sightings : Hebrides : Common Scoter

Common Scoter

(Scoter, Black Scoter, Black Sea Coot, American Scoter, Black Butterbill, Black Coot, Booby, Broad-Billed Coot, Brown Coot, Sea Coot, Smutty Coot, Yellow-Bill, Yellow-Nose, Fizzy, Gray Coot, Butter-Bill, Butter-Billed Coot, Butter-Nose, Copper Bill, Copper-Nose, Fizzy, Gray Coot, Hollow-Billed Coot, Pumpkin-Blossum Coot)

Melanitta nigra

Gaelic: Tunnag-dubh

Photography © Terry Fountain
St Kilda - Outer Hebrides (Western Isles
7th May, 2007

 

Our Scoter photographs

Surf Scoter Juvenile	Common Scoter (Black Scoter)

 

• Common Scoter (Scoter, Black Scoter, Black Sea Coot, American Scoter, Black Butterbill, Black Coot, Booby, Broad-Billed Coot, Brown Coot, Sea Coot, Smutty Coot, Yellow-Bill, Yellow-Nose, Fizzy, Gray Coot, Butter-Bill, Butter-Billed Coot, Butter-Nose, Copper Bill, Copper-Nose, Fizzy, Gray Coot, Hollow-Billed Coot, Pumpkin-Blossum Coot)
• Melanitta nigra
• Gaelic: Tunnag-dubh
• UK: RED LIST (50% decline), 77 breeding pairs, 35,000 birds (winter) BTO
• WI: Uncommon in winter (recorded in low numbers each year), & an occasional moulting flock in summer
  Some possible breeding records - none confirmed
• Breeds: North Europe, (inc North Scotland & Ireland) North Asia (woodland or tundra, close sea, lochs, rivers. June & July)
• Winters: (Oct - Mar) WI, South as far as Morocco Mediterranean, Black Seas
• Habitat: Tundra lakes & coasts, migration rivers
• Diet: Dives for food: mostly molluscs, insects, fish eggs, fish
• Large seaduck (45-54cm). Bulky shape, large bill. Male totally black (yellow near nostrils). Female lighter, (pale cheeks). Forms tight offshore rafts. Birds often dive & take-off together
• Max recorded age 7yrs 1mth
• Listen to a Common Scoter (RSPB site)
• Similar birds: Surf Scoter (very rare), Velvet Scoter (rare), Eider,
  

 

Common Scoter records in the Western Isles

Uncommon in winter (recorded in low numbers each year) and an occasional moulting flock in summer.
Some possible breeding records but none confirmed
Source: Outer Hebrides Bird Report (2001)

On the chart below the darker the shade of blue the more abundant the Common Scoter is during a month or the more likely you are to see it.

J	F	M	A	M	J	J	A	S	O	N	D

(Source: Outer Hebrides Birds Checklist)

 

 

A flock can often be seen in Autumn from the Braighe (Point, Lewis) or in the Sound of Taransay, sometimes Sound of Harris

 

Other local bird photographs

Sources of information for the bird sightings section

 

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