What is the king eider?
Q: What is the king eider?
A: The king eider (Somateria spectabilis) is a large sea duck.
Q: Where does the king eider breed?
A: The king eider breeds along Northern Hemisphere Arctic coasts of northeast Europe, North America and Asia.
Q: When do they migrate to the Arctic tundra to breed?
A: They migrate to the Arctic tundra to breed in June and July.
Q: How many eggs do they lay?
A: They lay four to seven eggs in a scrape on the ground lined with grass and down.
Q: Where do they winter?
A: The king eider winters in arctic and subarctic marine areas, most notably in the Bering Sea, the west coast of Greenland, eastern Canada and northern Norway. It also happens yearly off the northeastern United States, Scotland and Kamchatka. Breeding areas include the Arctic coastal tundra of the north coast of Alaska.
Q: What type of food do they eat?
A: This species dives for benthic invertebrates, such as crustaceans, polychaete worms, and molluscs, with mussels being a favoured food.
Q: How big can flocks get?
A Wintering birds can form large flocks on suitable coastal waters, with some flocks bigger than 100,000 birds.
