Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Anseriformes > Anatidae > Somateria > Somateria mollissima

Somateria mollissima (Common Eider)

Synonyms: Anas mollissima (homotypic); Eider mollissimus
Language: French

Wikipedia Abstract

The common eider (pronounced /ˈaɪ.dər/) (Somateria mollissima) is a large (50–71 cm (20–28 in) in body length) sea-duck that is distributed over the northern coasts of Europe, North America and eastern Siberia. It breeds in Arctic and some northern temperate regions, but winters somewhat farther south in temperate zones, when it can form large flocks on coastal waters. It can fly at speeds up to 113 km/h (70 mph).
View Wikipedia Record: Somateria mollissima

Infraspecies

Somateria mollissima borealis (Northern Eider)
Somateria mollissima dresseri (Canada Eider)
Somateria mollissima faeroeensis (European Eider)
Somateria mollissima mollissima (European eider)
Somateria mollissima sedentaria
Somateria mollissima v-nigrum (Pacific Eider)

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
1
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
10
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 3.11996
EDGE Score: 1.41584
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Clutch Size [8]  5
Clutches / Year [4]  1
Fledging [6]  58 days
Global Population (2017 est.) [3]  2,400,000
Incubation [4]  28 days
Mating System [9]  Monogamy
Maximum Longevity [4]  38 years
Migration [1]  Intercontinental
Snout to Vent Length [6]  24 inches (61 cm)
Speed [10]  40.041 MPH (17.9 m/s)
Water Biome [1]  Coastal
Wing Span [10]  39 inches (.98 m)
Adult Weight [2]  4.555 lbs (2.066 kg)
Birth Weight [4]  76 grams
Female Weight [7]  4.222 lbs (1.915 kg)
Male Weight [7]  4.89 lbs (2.218 kg)
Weight Dimorphism [7]  15.8 %
Breeding Habitat [3]  Arctic coastal, Arctic tundra
Wintering Geography [3]  Coastal U.S./Canada
Wintering Habitat [3]  Arctic coastal, Arctic polynyas, Coastal marine
Diet [5]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Piscivore, Frugivore, Herbivore
Diet - Fish [5]  10 %
Diet - Fruit [5]  10 %
Diet - Invertibrates [5]  70 %
Diet - Plants [5]  10 %
Forages - Water Surface [5]  20 %
Forages - Underwater [5]  80 %
Female Maturity [4]  2 years
Male Maturity [4]  2 years

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

+ Click for partial list (100)Full list (229)

Ecosystems

Important Bird Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Caucasus Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Russia, Turkey No
Mediterranean Basin Algeria, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Portugal, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey No

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Predators

Providers

Consumers

Range Map

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External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 2Storchová, Lenka; Hořák, David (2018), Data from: Life-history characteristics of European birds, Dryad, Dataset, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n6k3n
♦ 3Partners in Flight Avian Conservation Assessment Database, version 2017. Accessed on January 2018.
♦ 4de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 5Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 6Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 7Belopol'skii L.O. 1957. Ecology of sea colony birds of the Barents Sea. Izdat. Akad. Nauk SSSR. Moscow-Leningrad.
♦ 8Jetz W, Sekercioglu CH, Böhning-Gaese K (2008) The Worldwide Variation in Avian Clutch Size across Species and Space PLoS Biol 6(12): e303. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060303
♦ 9Terje Lislevand, Jordi Figuerola, and Tamás Székely. 2007. Avian body sizes in relation to fecundity, mating system, display behavior, and resource sharing. Ecology 88:1605
♦ 10Alerstam T, Rosén M, Bäckman J, Ericson PGP, Hellgren O (2007) Flight Speeds among Bird Species: Allometric and Phylogenetic Effects. PLoS Biol 5(8): e197. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0050197
♦ 11Energy flow of a boreal intertidal ecosystem, the Sylt-Rømø Bight, Dan Baird, Harald Asmus, Ragnhild Asmus, Mar Ecol Prog Ser 279: 45–61, 2004
♦ 12Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 13Cirtwill, Alyssa R.; Eklöf, Anna (2018), Data from: Feeding environment and other traits shape species' roles in marine food webs, Dataset, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.1mv20r6
♦ 14Food web studies in a Norwegian kelp forest based on stable isotope (δ13C and δ15N) analysis, Stein Fredriksen, Mar Ecol Prog Ser 260: 71–81, 2003
♦ 15POTAPOV, E. 2011. Gyrfalcon diet: Spatial and temporal variation In R. T. Watson, T. J. Cade, M. Fuller, G. Hunt, and E. Potapov (Eds.). Gyrfalcons and Ptarmigan in a Changing World. The Peregrine Fund, Boise, Idaho, USA
♦ 16Alopex lagopus, Alexandra M. Audet, C. Brian Robbins, and Serge Larivière, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 713, pp. 1–10 (2002)
♦ 17Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
♦ 18International Flea Database
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0