Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Anseriformes > Anatidae > Melanitta > Melanitta nigra

Melanitta nigra (Black Scoter; Common Scoter)

Synonyms: Anas nigra (homotypic); Oedemia nigra; Oidemia nigra
Language: French; Spanish

Wikipedia Abstract

The common scoter (Melanitta nigra) is a large sea duck, 43–54 cm (17–21 in) in length, which breeds over the far north of Europe and Asia east to the Olenyok River. The genus name is derived from Ancient Greek melas, "black", and netta, "duck". The species name is from Latin niger "shining black". The black scoter (M. americana) of North America and eastern Siberia is sometimes considered a subspecies of M. nigra.
View Wikipedia Record: Melanitta nigra

Infraspecies

Melanitta nigra americana (American black scoter) (Attributes)
Melanitta nigra nigra (European black scoter)

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
3
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
20
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 6.66143
EDGE Score: 2.0362
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  2.879 lbs (1.306 kg)
Birth Weight [2]  43 grams
Female Weight [5]  2.176 lbs (987 g)
Male Weight [5]  2.463 lbs (1.117 kg)
Weight Dimorphism [5]  13.2 %
Diet [3]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Piscivore, Granivore, Herbivore
Diet - Fish [3]  10 %
Diet - Invertibrates [3]  70 %
Diet - Plants [3]  10 %
Diet - Seeds [3]  10 %
Forages - Underwater [3]  100 %
Clutch Size [6]  7
Clutches / Year [2]  1
Fledging [4]  46 days
Incubation [2]  29 days
Mating System [7]  Monogamy
Maximum Longevity [2]  17 years
Snout to Vent Length [4]  19 inches (49 cm)
Speed [8]  49.436 MPH (22.1 m/s)
Wing Span [8]  33 inches (.85 m)
Female Maturity [2]  2 years
Male Maturity [2]  2 years

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

+ Click for partial list (100)Full list (314)

Ecosystems

Important Bird Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
California Floristic Province Mexico, United States No
Caucasus Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Russia, Turkey No
Japan Japan No
Mediterranean Basin Algeria, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Portugal, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey No

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Consumers

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Storchová, Lenka; Hořák, David (2018), Data from: Life-history characteristics of European birds, Dryad, Dataset, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n6k3n
♦ 2de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 3Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 4Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 5Bordage, D. and J.-P. L. Savard. 1995. Black scoter (Melanitta nigra). In A. Poole and F. Gill, editors. The Birds of North America, No.177. Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C., USA.
♦ 6Jetz W, Sekercioglu CH, Böhning-Gaese K (2008) The Worldwide Variation in Avian Clutch Size across Species and Space PLoS Biol 6(12): e303. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060303
♦ 7Terje Lislevand, Jordi Figuerola, and Tamás Székely. 2007. Avian body sizes in relation to fecundity, mating system, display behavior, and resource sharing. Ecology 88:1605
♦ 8Alerstam T, Rosén M, Bäckman J, Ericson PGP, Hellgren O (2007) Flight Speeds among Bird Species: Allometric and Phylogenetic Effects. PLoS Biol 5(8): e197. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0050197
♦ 9del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 10Food web topology and parasites in the pelagic zone of a subarctic lake, Per-Arne Amundsen, Kevin D. Lafferty, Rune Knudsen, Raul Primicerio, Anders Klemetsen and Armand M. Kuris, Journal of Animal Ecology 2009, 78, 563–572
♦ 11Food Web Relationships of Northern Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca : a Synthesis of the Available Knowledge, Charles A. Simenstad, Bruce S. Miller, Carl F. Nyblade, Kathleen Thornburgh, and Lewis J. Bledsoe, EPA-600 7-29-259 September 1979
♦ 12Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0