Ecology Summary - Melanitta fusca

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Ecology of Melanitta fusca

Main Ref.	BirdLife International, 2010
Remarks	Surface diving; dabbling; coastal. Winters: Norway to Spain, Black, Caspian and Mediterranean Seas; coastal East Asia, south to Japan and China; Atlantic and Pacific coastlines to Baja California, south Carolina, Florida, and Gulf coast (Ref. 356). They breed on wooded coastlines, small freshwater lakes, pools and rivers. They inhabit areas with boulder-covered or small rocky islands available for nesting with extensive herbaceous vegetation, shrubs and low trees. For the non-breeding population, winters are in shallow areas of inshore coastal waters; especially in water inlets where there are large mussel-beds but they also occur in freshwater habitats such as lakes and estuaries during migration (Ref. 83520). Feeds on clams, snails, barnacles, mussels and crabs found along the coast (Ref. 94965).

Main Ref.

BirdLife International, 2010

Remarks

Surface diving; dabbling; coastal. Winters: Norway to Spain, Black, Caspian and Mediterranean Seas; coastal East Asia, south to Japan and China; Atlantic and Pacific coastlines to Baja California, south Carolina, Florida, and Gulf coast (Ref. 356). They breed on wooded coastlines, small freshwater lakes, pools and rivers. They inhabit areas with boulder-covered or small rocky islands available for nesting with extensive herbaceous vegetation, shrubs and low trees. For the non-breeding population, winters are in shallow areas of inshore coastal waters; especially in water inlets where there are large mussel-beds but they also occur in freshwater habitats such as lakes and estuaries during migration (Ref. 83520). Feeds on clams, snails, barnacles, mussels and crabs found along the coast (Ref. 94965).

Aquatic zones / Water bodies

	Marine - Neritic	Marine - Oceanic	Brackishwater	Freshwater
Marine zones / Brackish and freshwater bodies	supra-littoral zone littoral zone sublittoral zone	epipelagic mesopelagic epipelagic abyssopelagic hadopelagic	estuaries/lagoons/brackish seas mangroves marshes/swamps	rivers/streams lakes/ponds caves exclusively in caves

Highighted items on the list are where Melanitta fusca may be found.

Habitat

Substrate	Hard Bottom: rocky;
Substrate Ref.	BirdLife International, 2010
Special habitats	vegetation ( leaves, stems/trunk, );
Special habitats Ref.	BirdLife International, 2010

Associations

Ref.
Associations
Associated with
Association remarks
Parasitism

feeding

Feeding type	mainly animals (troph. 2.8 and up)
Feeding type Ref.	Campbell, R.W., R.B. Bovey and A. Bezener, 2001
Feeding habit	hunting macrofauna (predator)
Feeding habit Ref.	Campbell, R.W., R.B. Bovey and A. Bezener, 2001

Trophic Level(s)

Estimation method	original sample		unfished population		Remark
Estimation method	Troph	s.e.	Troph	s.e.	Remark
From diet composition
From individual food items	3.31	0.24			Trophic level estimated from a number of food items using a randomized resampling routine.
Ref.

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