Home » Species finder

From tiny limpets to basking shark, Scotland’s seas are home to a huge diversity of wildlife!

Browse our species profiles below to find out more about some of Scotland’s wildlife.

Search for a species

Note: search starts after three or more characters have been entered.

135 records found

Arctic tern
Sterna paradisaea

The Arctic tern is a medium-sized tern which nests in colonies on sand and shingle beaches along the coast. Common…

Ballan wrasse
Labrus bergylta

Colouration and patterning are extremely variable in adults, ranging from mottled greens, browns and oranges to saddle-type markings. Juveniles are…

Black-headed gull
Chroicocephalus ridibundus

The adult black-headed gull is most recognisable in its summer plumage, when the dark chocolate-coloured hood (which looks black when…

Bladder wrack
Fucus vesiculosus

Bladder wrack is an olive-brown ‘wrack’ seaweed. It can be recognised by its strap-like, branching fronds that have air-filled ‘bladders’…

Blue jellyfish
Cyanea lamarckii

Often confused with the larger but similarly shaped Lions Mane Jellyfish, the blue jellyfish can be colourless when young and…

Blue mussel
Mytilus edulis

The common (or blue) mussel is a medium-sized edible marine bivalve mollusc. It is characterised by a smooth wedge, or…

Butterfish
Pholis gunnellus

This species is very easy to identify! Pale yellowish-orange to reddish-brown in colour, with bands of darker brown and distinctive…

Codium
Codium spp.

Codium are a group of green seaweeds which have the same photosynthetic pigments as land plants. Only a small proportion…

Colonial sea squirt
Ascidiacia

There are several different species of colonial sea squirt, but they have the same thing in common, they form colonies…

Comb jelly
Ctenophora

Though jelly is in the name, this goup, called ctenophores (pronounced tea-no-fores), are distinct from jellyfish. There are three species…

Common blenny
Lipophrys pholis

Also called ‘shanny’, the common blenny is often found in rockpools around Scotland. It has a smooth, elongated body with…

Common urchin
Echinus esculentus

Also called the edible urchin, the common urchin is the largest sea urchin found around our shorelines. It is spherical…

Common Tern
Sterna hirundo

The common tern is a medium-sized tern and the one you are most likely to see away from known breeding…

Cormorant
Phalacrocorax carbo carbo

The cormorant is a large and conspicuous water bird that can live in either marine or freshwater habitats. It has…

Cuckoo Wrasse
Labrus mixtus

This beautiful colourful fish would look right at hope in a tropical reef but its found in Scotland’s waters and…

Cup coral
Caryophyllia smithii

The Devonshire cup coral is a species of stony coral, with less that 80 slender translucent tentacles in three layers…

Curlew
Numenius arquata

Curlew are very large, tall waders, about the same size as a female pheasant. Curlew are mottled brown and grey…

Common cuttlefish
Sepia officinalis

Cuttlefish are related to slugs, snails, mussels and squid. They are not fish, but shallow water cephalopods and dwell on…

Dab
Limanda limanda

A small flatfish with both eyes on the right side of its body. It is brown with darker blotches and…

Dipper
Cinclus cinclus

The dipper is a short-tailed bird with a plump body shape. They are unmistakable, with a white throat and breast,…

Dog whelk
Nucella lapillus

Dog whelks are inter-tidal snails with a shell which is conical with a rounded spire. The shell is usually white,…

European Eel
Anguilla anguilla

Eels are very long, narrow freshwater fish which can grow over a metre in length. Eels look smooth and lack…

Egg wrack
Ascophyllum nodosum

Egg wrack has long, yellow-brown, strap-like fronds with air bladders protruding at regular intervals along their length.

Eider
Somateria mollissima

The eider duck is characterised by its wedge-shaped bill and bulky shape. Males have a black and white plumage with…

Eurasian Otter
Lutra lutra

The Eurasian otter is one of our top predators, feeding mainly on fish, waterbirds, amphibians and crustaceans. Otters can be…

Fulmar
Fulmarus glacialis

The fulmar is a grey-white pelagic seabird, or nomad of the ocean, only coming ashore to rocky islands or desolate…

Gannet
Morus bassanus

The gannet is easily identified: a big, white bird with black wingtips and a yellow head. It can be spotted…

Greater pipefish
Syngnathus acus

Pipefish look like someone has stretched out a seahorse (they are actually close relatives to seahorses)! They have a long…

Grey seal
Halichoerus grypus

A very large mammal, the grey seal spends most of its time out at sea where it feeds on fish.…

Grey topshell
Steromphala cineraria

The grey topshell can be confused with the purple topshell, but has a more pointy conical shape to its shell,…

Guillemot
Uria aalge

The guillemot is a seabird of the auk family that comes on land to breed in the summer. Most guillemots…

Harbour Crab
Liocarcinus depurator

Sometimes called the sandy swimming crab, this species can be recognised by their violet tinted swimming paddles on its back…

Harbour Porpoise
Phocoena phocoena

The harbour porpoise is the most commonly seen porpoise in shallow coastal waters, estuaries, bays and river mouths. It is…

Harbour seal
Phoca vitulina

The smaller of our two seal species, harbour seals (also known as common seals) are often found around sheltered shores…

Hermit crab
Pagurus bernhardus

Hermit crabs are crustaceans, i.e., they are related to crabs, lobsters and prawns. However, unlike other crab species, hermit crabs do not have…

Herring gull
Larus argentatus

Herring gulls are large gulls and one of the commonest in Western Europe. In Scotland, the Western herring gull is…

Kittiwake
Rissa tridactyla

A slight, medium-sized, pelagic gull with a flight pattern that is more elegant (and more Tern-like) than other gulls. Kittiwakes…

Common limpet
Patella vulgata

Common limpets have small grey cone-shaped shells with prominent radiating ridges that attach firmly to the side of rocks in…

Little cuttlefish
Sepiola atlantica

A very small cuttlefish with a rounded cup-like body and protrusive eyes. Normally pale with brown and white blotchy markings,…

Lugworm
Arenicola marina

If you’ve ever seen spaghetti like mounds on the beach, those are a sign of lugworms. The worms themselves are…

Maerl
Phymatolithon calcareum

Maerl is a generic term for red hard coralline algae. It has a hard chalky skeleton that grows as small…

Manx shearwater
Puffinus puffinus

The manx shearwater is a small shearwater. It’s black on top and white underneath. Manx shearwaters are excellent fliers, they…

Moon jellyfish
Aurelia aurita

The moon jellyfish is almost entirely translucent and can be recognised by four bright pinkish/purple horseshoe-shaped circles, the gonads i.e.,…

Orca
Orcinus orca

Also known as the ‘Killer Whale’, the orca one of the top predators in the world’s oceans. The black and…

Painted topshell
Calliostoma zizyphinum

This sea snail has beautiful pink (but sometimes yellow and purple) and white bands on it shell. The base of…

Peacock worm
Sabella pavonina

Peacock worms live in slim tubes either buried in mud or attached to rocks and stones.

Flat periwinkle
Littorina obtusata/fabalis

There are actually two species of flat periwinkle but we can’t identify them without dissecting them. When recording the flat…

Plaice
Pleuronectes platessa

Plaice is a diamond-shaped flatfish that lives on sandy seabeds all around the UK. Plaice can be identified by their…

Puffin
Fratercula arctica

The puffin is a small auk, familiar as the ‘clowns’ of the coast with their brightly coloured bills, bumpy landings…

Queen scallop
Aequipecten opercularis

The queen scallop is a medium-sized scallop, a marine bivalve (with a hinged double shell). The shell is variable in…

Razor clam
Ensis ensis

Razor clams, or razor shells, have very characteristic long, fragile shells. The shells are smooth on the outside and whitish…

Razorbill
Alca torda

Razorbill populations are migratory and lead a predominantly aquatic lifestyle, only coming on land to breed. Understanding the precise number…

Sand eels
Ammodytes tobianus

Sand eel is the generic term given to small eel-like fish which swim in large shoals and found around the UK, in…

Sea hare
Aplysia punctata

The sea hare looks like a sea slug – but in fact has an internal shell. They can be up…

Sea lettuce
Ulva lactuca

Sea lettuce lives up to its name: it looks like green, floppy lettuce leaves which are often tatty in appearance…

Sea mat
Membranipora membranacea and Electra pilosa

These mat like growths found on kelp and seaweed are actually colonies of tiny individuals animals. There are 2 main…

Seagrass
Zostera and Ruppia

Seagrass is unique among flowering plants, in that all but one genus can live entirely immersed in seawater. More closely…

Shag
Phalacrocorax aristotelis

The shag is medium-to-large dark-feathered, reptilian-looking bird. It is a widespread resident breeding species in coastal regions throughout Scotland. Although…

Shore Crab
Carcinus maenas

Probably the commonest crab in Britain, the shore crab is a medium-sized crab which lives amongst rocks and seaweed from…

Shore Rockling
Gaidropsarus mediterraneus

This species of fish can sometimes be confused with eels due to their long, eel-shaped body, but they have very…

Snakelocks anemone
Anemonia viridis

Snakelocks anemones have a squat greyish-brown body and up to 200 long, wavy, snake-like tentacles that give them their name. The tentacles are normally…

Spiny starfish
Marthasterias glacialis

As the name gives away, this starfish has spines in three rows all the way down each of its five…

Sugar kelp
Saccharina latissima

Sugar kelp is a large ‘kelp’ seaweed, dark browny-green, with a single broad frond that has a distinctive crinkly and…

Sunstar
Crossaster papposus

This large star fish looks like the sun, with 10-12 arms spreading outwards like the sun’s rays.

Thongweed
Himanthalia elongata

One of the longest seaweeds native to the UK, thongweed helps create a beautiful underwater forest to rival that of…

Two spotted goby
Gobiusculus flavescens

The males have two distinctive black spots, one larger spot behind the pectoral fins and one smaller spot at the…

Weever fish
Echiichthys vipera

Weever fish are one of the only venomous fish to be found in UK waters, there are two species of…

Yarrell’s Blenny
Chirolophis ascanii

This fish has a small head with a blunt snout and frog-like mouth. A large fringed tentacle is present above…

Snorkelling can be dangerous and is done entirely at your own risk.

Information is provided free of charge; it is your responsibility to check the conditions present on the day and assess whether it is safe to snorkel.

The Scottish Wildlife Trust strives to provide accurate information but cannot accept responsibility for changes, errors or omissions.

Back to top