Somateria spectabilis

Monotypic. Genus Somateria includes 3 species of large sea ducks (tribe Mergini) (Suydam 2000). The king eider is grouped with common eider (Somateria mollissima) in subgenus Somateria; spectacled eider (S. fischeri) is included in subgenus Lampronetta (Livezey 1995). Genetic distinctiveness of North American east Arctic and west Arctic wintering populations of king eiders is unknown (Sea Duck Joint Venture 2003).

Large range and population size, very remote nesting habitat, nonbreeding concentrations at sea, few immediate threats.

This Holarctic species is one of the most northerly nesting ducks, and also a northerly winterer (Palmer 1976). Two populations exist in North America: one winters in the eastern Arctic (Atlantic), the other in the western Arctic (Pacific) (Suydam 2000, Sea Duck Joint Venture 2003). Breeding occurs along the Arctic coast and islands from northern Alaska east to Greenland, west coast of Hudson Bay, James Bay, and probably northern Labrador; Banks and Victoria islands are important nesting areas. The species also nests along the Arctic coast from northern Russia east to Chukotski Peninsula and St. Lawrence and St. Matthew Islands. Small numbers nest in northern Finland, Sweden, Norway, and in northern coastal Greenland (Suydam 2000).

The nonbreeding range in the Pacific extends from from Kamchatka and the Bering Sea south to the Kurile, Aleutian, and Shumagin Islands. In the Atlantic, wintering extends primarily from Labrador and Greenland south to New England (less frequently eastern New York and New Jersey), and uncommonly in interior North America to the Great Lakes.Birds breeding in western Siberia and Scandinavia winter from the White Sea to western Norway and eastern coast of Iceland; small numbers as far south as England and Ireland (Suydam 2000). Casual nonbreeding visitors occur to points south of the normal southern limits of range (AOU 1983).

Molting areas are poorly documented but presumably are in marine environments. The western arctic population in North America molts primarily in the Bering Sea and to lesser extent in the Chukchi Sea (Sea Duck Joint Venture 2003). A small number may also molt in the eastern Beaufort Sea (Johnson and Herter 1989). Satellite telemetry has identified several key molting sites: off the south and east coasts of the Chukotsk (Chukchi) Peninsula, south of St. Lawrence Island, and northern Bristol Bay (Dickson et al. 1999). The eastern arctic population is known to molt in areas of western Greenland around Disko Bay and in eastern Greenland at Clyde Inlet (Suydam 2000).

No data available.

Reasons for the apparent large decline in northern Alaska and the western Canadian Arctic are unknown (Suydam et al. 2000). Annual mortality from hunting in that area ranged from 2.5 to 5.5% of the total population, but this is within the sustainable harvest limits of other sea ducks (Suydam et al. 2000). Small numbers are hunted during spring migration (Madge and Burn 1988).

This species is potentially threatened by oil spills when concentrated in large nonbreeding flocks.

Significant causes of mortality include: (1) exposure on nesting grounds (50,000 females and young perished in one season in the Beaufort Sea) (Barry 1968); (2) adult starvation during spring migration when weather conditions are severe (~100,000, or 10% of the Beaufort Sea population, died in 1964) (Barry 1968); and (3) predation, especially on breeding grounds, by Long-tailed Jaeger (Stercorarius longicaudus) and arctic fox (Alopex lagopus).