King Eider at Lorneville

                                                                  King Eider Juvenile Male

For the past 2 weeks there has been a juvenile King Eider (Somateria spectabilis) in the vicinity of Lorneville wharf (at the end of Point Road, off Lorneville Road).  It apparently cannot fly probably because it is in moult but it also shows a piece missing from its bill so it may have been injured.  It has been seen around the wharf, along the cove and across the cove at Irving Nature Park.  This individual is a first winter male.  Three of us saw it on October 24 at the wharf where it was resting on a small rocky surface still exposed by the nearly full rising tide,  sharing the space with a Double-crested Cormorant.  It later left the rock and swam by us giving a reasonable opportunity for a photo as seen above.

So, why is this a King Eider and not the much more common, Common Eider?  Firstly, it has an orange bill and not dark gray like the female Common Eider or yellow like the eclipse adult Common Eider.  It also has orange feet and legs and in the Common Eider they are dark gray.  Other distinguishing features include a smaller bill than the Common Eider, and a white patch on the sides above the tail (not visible in the photo above but seen by the observer) and white showing on the breast.  According to Lars Jonsson (Birds of Europe, 1993), first winter males can vary in appearance.  They can have a varying amount of white showing on the throat; their bill can show a varying amount of suggested knob formation; the light patch on the stern can be buff-grey to whitish. 

It takes the King Eider three years to reach maturity.  So why is this individual a first winter male and not a second winter male?  First, it is obviously not an adult male because the adult male has an extremely beautiful white and black plumage with a large orange knob on its bill.  The second winter male shows much more white in its plumage and a definite suggestion of the formation of the orange knob on its bill.  The eclipse male (non-breeding plumage) is dark overall with white showing on its back and wing coverts.  Its bill is pinkish to yellow and the head shape is distinctive.  It also shows a white post-ocular line.  Notice that this specimen has no suggestion of a knob on the bill and no post-ocular line.

In the beautiful photo shown below notice the features of the first winter male.  For more information about the female King Eider, search this blog for a post titled, 'King Eider'.  There you will find information about the female and the distribution of the species.

King Eider Juvenile Male    [Jim Carroll Photo]                                     

The King Eider has a circumpolar distribution and birders in Europe are just as excited about seeing one as we are.  It breeds along the shores of our Arctic islands, Alaska, Siberia, Russia, Greenland, and around the Behring Sea. In autumn it migrates south to open water to spend the winter as far south as our coastline south to Massachusetts and also the Great Lakes.  It is not common here at all and we are always privileged to see one.  It also winters off southern Alaska and a few trickle down the northern British Columbia coast.  

                                        King Eider Juvenile Male   [Jim Carroll Photo]

The King Eider is listed as a rare spring and fall migrant along our coasts (Birds of New Brunswick:  An Annotated List).  In recent times only one bird is usually seen but occasionally small groups appear.  Six were seen at Val Comeau in April, 1993.  In January, 1972, 20 were seen at Maces Bay.

The King Eiders we see here breed in our far north, the eastern population around Greenland and Baffin and Ellesmere Islands.  The nest is usually near water and is a flattened hollow on the ground lined with grasses and down from the female's breast.  The three to seven olive to buff eggs are incubated by the female for 22 to 24 days.  King Eiders eat mainly mollusks, crustaceans, aquatic insects and supplements this with a small amount of eel grass, widgeon grass and algae.  They forage by diving deeply.  Some have been caught in nets 150 feet below the surface!

This species is not very vocal but the male 'talks' to the female in breeding season by uttering an 'urn-urr-URR' sound.  His normal voice is a quavering, dove-like cooing.  The female makes a variety of low clucks, grunts and growls.  

The King Eider was first described in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus when he assigned it to the genus Anas.  It was changed in 1819 by William Elford Leach to the genus, Somateria, the eiders.  Somateria comes from the Greek word, soma meaning 'body' and erion meaning 'wool'.  The combination, 'wooly body', refers to the thick soft down on the bird's body.  The spectabilis is Latin for 'showy' or 'remarkable'. 

In the common name the 'King' comes from the bright orange knob on the bill of the male and the brightly coloured plumage suggesting the royal robes.  The term, Eider, goes way back and is derived from a Dutch, German and Swedish word which is derived from the Icelandic word for eider which in itself is derived from an Old Norse word for eider, aethr.

King Eiders can live to at least 18 years.  A banded specimen was 18 years old.  Their population numbers are listed as 'least concern' by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.  They are protected in the Old World by the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds.  Their population is under threat, however, by dwindling food resources and by predation to eggs and young in the north by Glaucous Gulls, Common Ravens, Parasitic Jaegers and Arctic Foxes.  

Every year we see a few King Eiders migrate past Point Lepreau.  Some are adult males.  I hope I get the opportunity sometime to provide a post on an adult male.