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Steller's eider
Polysticta stelleri | Stellers eider | Eider chico
The smallest and fastest of the eiders, and in breeding plumage one of the most finely marked ducks of the north. In the harbours of arctic Norway hundreds feed right below the quay in winter, so a species that looks unreachable on paper can be watched at ten metres.
Voice
Largely silent in winter. Drakes give low growls and short barking notes; females are the more vocal, with a hoarse barking kroo and low throaty sounds within the flock. On a still day in a Norwegian harbour that muttering carries, but elsewhere the bird is found by eye alone.
No freely licensed recording is available for this species yet.
Identification
The drake has a white head with a black throat, a black eye patch and a green-yellow patch on the rear crown, a black stripe down the nape, warm buff underparts with a sharp black spot on the flank and blue-black, white-fringed scapulars. The female is deep rufous-brown with dark feather centres, a pale eye-ring and a blue-purple speculum bordered white above and below. The bill is small and grey, notably short for an eider. Eclipse drakes resemble females but are blacker, with a grey-brown head and finely barred breast; the white forewing panel still shows in flight.
Confusion species
A breeding drake is unmistakable. The difficulty lies with females and eclipse drakes, which at range read as a dark brown duck among Eiders. Go on size and shape: far smaller than Eider, with a short, high forehead, a small grey bill and a pointed, cocked rear end more reminiscent of a Teal than of a sea duck. The blue-purple speculum with its two white borders is often visible on a swimming bird, and in flight the wing is narrow and the beat noticeably fast. Common Scoter and young Eider lack the speculum and have a far heavier bill profile.
Habitat
Winters at sea close inshore: shallow sandy bottoms, kelp over rock and the tidal zone of harbours and bays, where flocks dive for small molluscs, crustaceans and snails. Breeds on wet coastal tundra in Siberia and Alaska, beside shallow pools.
Where the bird is most at home, classified with EUNIS — the European standard for habitats.
Range and movements
Breeds on the arctic coasts of Russia and Alaska. Atlantic birds winter in the Barents and Baltic Seas, with Varanger in arctic Norway the dependable place and further flocks along the Finnish and Baltic coasts. Britain has close to a hundred records, the first shot in Norfolk in 1830, with Orkney, Shetland and the Outer Hebrides holding most of the long-staying drakes; several have summered for years in the same bay.
- Winter
- Passage
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
Where and when to look
In February or March walk the harbour front at Vadsø or the quay at Båtsfjord and simply look down; the flocks feed between the boats. In Scotland it is a matter of following news and then scanning Eider flocks off the northern isles for a small, sharp-tailed duck that dives more often than its neighbours.
Conservation status
Listed as Vulnerable. The European wintering population has fallen sharply since the 1990s and Alaskan breeding numbers have collapsed. The pressures are oil pollution and shipping accidents in the confined wintering areas, drowning in set nets, lead poisoning from ingested shot, nest predation by foxes and skuas, and change on the breeding tundra.