Melanitta

Genusaccepted · checked 2026-08-05WoRMS 137002ITIS 175162key itis:175162

2026-08-05: worms_id 137002 via WoRMS TSN crosswalk (status accepted)

The scoters are stocky seaducks in the genus Melanitta. The drakes are mostly black and have swollen bills, the females are brown.W CalCOFI holds 122 observations of it in 1 dataset between 1987 and 2022, across 2 taxa under it.R

122
observations: 122
records: 1987–2022
years: 1
datasets: 2
species under it

Photo · Bjoern Rost · CC BY 4.0 · inat

Observed in nothing keyed to it directly

Every observation under it belongs to one of the taxa under it — 2 taxa · Melanitta perspicillata most observed, in the fold below.

Ways inExplorer db-query R Python This page as JSON

Code and endpoints R · Python · JSON

library(calcofi4r)
con <- cc_get_db()                      # the promoted release
tbl(con, "obs_bio") |> filter(taxon_key == "itis:175162")

Read from taxa.json of release v2026.10.21, written at release by calcofi4db::build_taxa_catalog(). The catalog's index is /species/.

How big is it not on record

Not on record: no authority the fetcher reads carries a length for this taxon (a genus page could show the range of its species).

Under it 2 taxa · Melanitta perspicillata most observed

sp Melanitta perspicillata Surf Scoter115
sp Melanitta nigra Black Scoter7

Lineage 10 ranks · Animalia to Anatidae

Credits silhouette · photo · text

Silhouette · Gabriela Palomo-Munoz · CC BY-NC 3.0 · PhyloPic, drawn from Melanitta deglandi · source
Photo · Bjoern Rost · CC BY 4.0 · inat · source
Text · Wikipedia, “Scoter” · CC BY-SA 4.0 · revision 1367541899

Elsewhere Wikidata · iNaturalist · GBIF

Wikidata iNaturalist GBIF

The same organism on the services the faces were fetched from; the authorities' own pages are the ids in the head.

Cite the release, v2026.10.21

Cite the release, v2026.10.21; each dataset's own citation, licence and DOI are on its page. How to cite ↗