diff --git a/scrapy/selector/unified.py b/scrapy/selector/unified.py
index c0eefb85e..db8b0bc2d 100644
--- a/scrapy/selector/unified.py
+++ b/scrapy/selector/unified.py
@@ -182,9 +182,9 @@ class SelectorList(list):
     def extract(self):
         return [x.extract() for x in self]
 
-    def extract_first(self):
+    def extract_first(self, default=None):
         for x in self:
-            return x.extract()
+            return x.extract() or default
 
     @deprecated(use_instead='.extract()')
     def extract_unquoted(self):