Eider
size:
50-71 centimeters; 80-108 centimeters wingspan
color (adults):
male: black and white plumage, green neck
female: brown
food:
shellfish, periwinkles, small crabs, starfish (occasionally)
threats:
overfishing (compeition), oil pollution
Dutch status:
nesting bird, winter guest
habitat
sea, mud flats
reproduction:
maturity: 3 years, 4-6 eggs
in colonies on marshes or isolated islands
life span:
18 years (maximum record: 35.5 years)
special nature:
females help each other in rearing the chicks. They form creches up to 150 ducklings.
females build up a fat reserve to be able to stay on the nest 1 month long without eating
- Dut: Eidereend (eider)
- Eng: Common Eider
- Fren: Eider à duvet
- Ger: Eiderente
- Ital: Edredone
- Lat: Somateria mollissima
- Dan: Edderfugl
- Nor: Ærfugl
- Fries: Eidergoes
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- Common Eider, Jeroen Reneerkens (jeroenreneerkens@hetnet.nl)
Eider
Eiders are bulky ducks with a large wedge-shaped bill. In fact, it is their bill and their flattened head that make them easy to identify. Males are unmistakeable with their black-white plumage and characteristic 'ah-hoo' call. Downy feathers from eiders are the best in the world. Females line their nests with this material. In Iceland, people gather the feathers for making comforters and pillows.
- Strong stomach
- female Eider, foto fitis, adriaan dijksen
Eiders swim and dive to find their food. They can dive as deep as 10 meters. The beak of the eider is so sensitive that it is capable of judging the quality (the proportion meat-water-shell) of the shellfish.
Scientists from IMARES have calculated the total food requirements for eiders in the Wadden Sea to be 14.7 million kilograms of shellfish meat. They swallow their prey as a whole, just like common scoters. Their strong stomach muscles grind the shells and whatever is unedible is excreted. - Distribution of eiders
- Distribution of eiders, North Sea region, Ecomare
Source: Important bird areas for Seabirds in the North Sea
The eider first started to nest in the Netherlands in the beginning of the 20th century. Their nesting territory has been spreiding south for two centuries now, without them deserting the northern nesting grounds. Thanks to the decline in eider hunting this expansion has been possible.
- Winters with many deaths
- Eiders, foto fitis, adriaan dijksen
Eiders are sensitive to changes. There can be many birds in one year, and a sudden decline in the following year. In the winters of 1999/2000 and 2001/2002, a notable number of eiders died along the Dutch coast. IMARES was commissioned to investigate the problem. The shellfish contained so little meat in those winters that the eiders died from malnutrition.
- Protection
