Abstract
Abstract Birds are known to modify their foraging behavior in relation to food availability. Once understood, these relationships can be used to draw inferences about relative food availability and habitat quality. We measured foraging behavior of Surf Scoters (Melanitta perspicillata) and White-winged Scoters (M. fusca) feeding on clams during winter in the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia, to evaluate the relative quality of the foraging landscape for wintering scoters. Because clam biomass does not increase appreciably during winter through growth or recruitment, scoters are faced with a depleting and potentially exhaustible food supply. Along with this temporal variation, clam densities vary widely by site. We considered the influence of variation in clam density on scoter foraging behavior, along with other factors known to affect foraging in other sea duck species, such as season, sex, age, and environmental attributes. Clam-capture success (clams captured per dive) and foraging effort (minutes u...
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