Common Eider

Physical Features

The Common Eider is the largest northern hemisphere duck. It weighs an average of 1 800g, but its weight can vary from 850 to 3 025g depending on race, gender, and time of the year. These stocky, thick-necked birds hold their heads below body level when they fly. The head, neck, chest and back of male Common Eiders are white. His stomach, sides, rump, tail coverts and tail are all black in color. The top of his head is black and his green cheeks are visible during breeding and his head has a marked slope. Just above his tail is a white circular spot. His grayish beak becomes yellow near his face, and his legs and feet have green and gray colors. Female Common Eiders have chocolate-brown to gray colors. They have distinct dark lines on their backs, sides, breasts and flanks.

Habitat

The Common Eider is particularly fond of marine habitats. It can be found in arctic and sub-arctic areas, coastal peninsulas, offshore islands, skerries and shoals. It usually stays in the water in winter. Common Eiders are hard to track because they travel over large water bodies and remote areas. In the east, during the winter, they move from Greenland to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and south along the Atlantic Coast to Virginia. In the west, they spend their winter moving to southern Alaska.

Diet

Common Eiders feed during the day. They dive 3 to 20 meters into the water to look for mussels, clams, scallops, sea urchins, starfish, crabs and crustaceans. They swallow these creatures whole, and they get crushed in their large gizzard. In the winters Common Eiders spend more than half their days eating.

Meat

Common Eider meat has a fishy taste due to its marine diet. The highly hunted Common Eiders are an endangered species, and are now under strict check by the hunting regulations put in place.

Behavior

Common Eiders are gregarious and travel and feed in massive flocks even in excess of thousands. Common Eiders are seasonally monogamous. Males begin to breed at three years of age, while some females can breed in their second year. Their courtship is very intense in spring, with males making displays for the females, which includes upward tossing of his head, cooing, neck-stretching and wing-flapping. Courtship continues after pairing and this maintains the bonds between the pair. The female prepares the nest and she lays 4 or 5 eggs, one per day. She lines her nest using her feathers. When laying the eggs, some females leave the colony to feed before returning to incubate the eggs. When incubation begins, the female only leaves the nest for a little as five minutes every two or three days to drink, but not to eat. The male sometimes stays with the female offering her protection. Incubation lasts from 21 to 24 days, with 50 to 70 percent of the eggs hatching successfully. The downy newborns leave the nest within 24 hours, and feed themselves. They can dive competently within one hour of entering the water. The young first fly when they are 60 days old. American crows, ravens, gulls and jaegers love to feed on the eggs and young of the Common Eider. Ducklings produce high-pitched sounds when feeding in the water and a long whistle when in danger. When agitated, the Common Eiders produce hoarse “kor-korr-korr” notes. During courting, the males “coo” like pigeons, and their cooing can cover great distances across water on calm days. The females are not so vocal. They use hoarse throaty calls during courtship and feeding. When protecting their ducklings from herring gulls and other attackers, the females give off an abrupt “cluck- cluck- cluck.”

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