Overview

Spectacled Eider

Spectacled Eiders (Somateria fischeri) can be found only in the Arctic. With striking plumage, most notably the prominent white "spectacles" found around the eyes of males during the breeding season, it is easily distinguished from Common, King or Steller's Eiders.

Range and Habitat

Found along the northern coast of Russia and Alaska and down the coast of western Alaska (above the Aleutian Chain), the Spectacled Eider breeds near the coast, and spends the non-breeding season at sea. The entire population winters in the Bering Sea in great open areas of packed ice.

eiders in trouble

The Spectacled Eider was listed as a Threatened species under the Endangered Species Act in 1993. Read More

Spotlight On ... Spectacled Eiders

These ducks were only discovered to be overwintering in vast flocks out in the ice in the 1970s. In March, Jeff Wilson from the BBC Natural History TV team joined scientist Jim Lovvorn on the Healy in the Bering Sea.

As you can hear in the audio report, Jim was able to witness behavior never previously seen in Spectacled Eiders using Jeff's special cameras.

Healy in the Bering Sea, March 13-26, 2008

Posted by Nora Deans

In 1995, researchers discovered that the world's population of spectacled eiders winters in the Bering Sea--as many as 370,000 birds.

They rest on the edge of sea ice near open water between dives of up to 230 feet to feed on clams on the sea floor. Spectacled eiders may face a shortage of food as the Bering Sea ecosystem shifts with climate change. The clams they depend on seem to be less plentiful, and biologists want to know if they're finding other food to eat, or moving to new areas.

On this cruise, the first of a pioneering study looking at the eastern Bering Sea from top to bottom, Jim worked closely with biologists studying the sea floor and the distribution of animals that the spectacled eiders feed on, which also happened to be eaten by walrus. Walrus biologists on board traded off helicopter time with Jim to find and plant radio tags on walrus that help them track where and how long they dive for food.

spectacled eider swimming Jim found small flocks of eiders east of the traditional "hotspot" where their food was known to be plentiful, and where they’d been seen during the four other eider surveys since 1995. Although they’re easy to miss during aerial surveys of such a large area, Jim didn’t find any eiders where they’d been in the past.

On Sunday evening, the radio crackled on the bridge, "We found the eiders, hundreds of thousands of them,” the BBC Natural History film unit called in as they hovered in the helo fifteen miles west of the ship. For nearly an hour they filmed the eiders, capturing a rare behavior on film -- a walrus bursting up from below into a small flock of eiders on the water. USGS walrus biologist Anthony Fischbach confirmed that other seabirds have been found in walrus stomachs, but not necessarily eiders.

The ship slowly drew closer. The dark smudges on the horizon swirled and moved, and we were in the midst of hundreds of thousands of spectacled eiders. For half an hour, we watched an endless stream of birds flying by our bow or settling on the water, like watching vast herds of wildebeest moving on the Serengeti in the plains of Africa.

Later, we all gathered to watch the unedited film footage, reliving the moment without the adrenaline rush. When asked how many birds were in the flocks, Jim quietly noted that “We could well have seen the entire world population of these birds.” He’ll be able to study the film in more detail in the months to come, noting courtship behavior, looking for mated pairs, and noting what the benthic scientists had found on the sea floor in that area. --Posted by Nora Deans

Photos: Top, Brendan Smith/NPRB; bottom, US Geological Survey