Rolf Nagel

A diving seaduck, feeding on molluscs, breeding along northern coasts of Fenno-Scandia to Central Siberia, and wintering along coasts of Northern and Western Europe, including the Baltic sea and Atlantic Morocco. Monotypic, formerly considered conspecific with the close relative M. americana, breeding in East Siberia, Alaska and Labrador.

Season of assessment

B

Population trendUnknown
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		45200-71100,56500
Red List categoryLC
Franks, S., Fiedler, W., Arizaga, J., Jiguet, F., Nikolov, B., van der Jeugd, Ambrosini, R, Aizpurua, O., Bairlein, F., Clark, J., Fattorini, N, Hammond, M., Higgins, D, Levering, H., Skellorn, W., Spina, F, Thorup, K. Walker, J., Woodward, I. and Baillie, S.R. (1) (2022) Online Atlas of the movements of European bird populations. https://migrationatlas.org EURING/CMS (1) Principal investigator
Map

Overall Connectivity for Common Scoter

There is not a lot to say from the ringing data, except that common scoters move along a NE to SW flyway drawn along the northern European coasts (Bergman 1974). Most ring recoveries come from the North Sea and British Isles.

Recoveries by Condition for Common Scoter

Almost only dead recoveries for this species, mostly beach wrecks, including oiled birds, but also hunted (8%), with anecdotical live ring recoveries (1%), all obtained before 1960. Dead recoveries mainly obtained since the 1990s, with half of them obtained in 1996, the year of the Sea Empress oil spill off Pembrokeshire (but oil victims represent ‘only’ 8% of all recoveries). Dead ring recoveries means that GPS tracks provide a different appraisal of the migration schedule because they provide multiple sightings for each individual, while dead recovery provide only singles, definitely.

Annual Movements for Common Scoter

Only few tracking projects undergone, tagging birds off the Baltic states and in the North Sea. Interesting track for an individual arrived on the breeding grounds, east of the Pechora river, at the end of May and left in the first decade of August. Most of May and August spent at stopovers in the Barents Sea and in Estonia. The departure from the Danish wintering ground occurred in the first week of April, the return in autumn in the last decade of September.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Common Scoter

First resightings on breeding grounds noted in May in Scandinavia, in Jun in Far East Russia. Still ring recoveries in Finland and the Baltic Sea from Oct to Dec, but Jan-Mar records mainly restricted to the North Sea and British Isles.  Some birds summer down to NW Europe where ring recoveries are scattered along the year. A few extralimital records in Croatia and S Spain. More precise information can be obtained from recent GPS tracking efforts on the species.

Frédéric Jiguet

References

Statistics Map
N records N individuals N recoveries
Mapped data*
Total available data
*Mapped data include only distant (>= 50 km) recoveries
References Map
Bergman, G.1974 . The spring migration of the Long-tailed Duck and the Common Scoter in western Finland. Ornis Fennica 51: 129–145

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