Incubation is by the female and takes about four weeks. All three scoter species are basically black, with varying amounts of white in the plumage. These sea ducks fly in long, undulating lines, in irregular groups, or in V-shaped flocks. They eat mollusks, crustaceans, aquatic insects and plants. They are rare to uncommon migrants over Pennsylvania, passing through the state in March and April, and again in October and November.
Scoters breed in Canada and Alaska.
They winter on the Great Lakes and along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.