KING EIDER 

 ( Somateria spectabilis ) 



[DA: Kongeederfugl, DU: Koningseidereend , FI: Pulskahaahka , FR: Eider a tete 

 grise, Eider royal; GE: Prachteiderente , IC : Aedarkongur , IT: Re degli Edredoni , 

 NW: Praktaerfugl, PO: Turkan , RU: (Crested Eider), SP: Eider rey, Eider real; 

 SW: Praktejder] 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION 



King Eiders breed on the Arctic coast of Alaska from Point Hope, TIgara, 

 and Cape Thompson eastward along the coasts of the Yukon, and the Mackenzie and 

 Keewatin districts. They breed locally on the west coast of Hudson Bay to Cape 

 Henrietta Maria, and South Twin Island, as well as on most of the Arctic islands 

 (AOU 1957, Gabrielson and Lincoln 1959, Palmer 1976b). Breeding also occurs on 

 most of the islands in the Franklin District, northward to northern Ellesmere 

 Island and adjacent Greenland. Local breeding has been reported from northern 

 coastal Quebec, and is suspected in Labrador (Godfrey 1966, Johnsgard 1978). 

 In the winter, King Eiders occur throughout the eastern Aleutian Islands and the 

 Alaskan Peninsula, as well as in northeastern North America from Greenland and 

 Newfoundland south along the Maritime Provinces to the New England States (AOU 

 1957, Gabrielson and Lincoln 1959), with occasional records farther south and 

 in the interior (Palmer 1976b). 



The King Eider also breeds in the Palearctic region, including parts of 

 Iceland, Spitzbergen, Novaya Zemlya and Vaigach islands, the eastern Kola Pen- 

 insula, and eastward to the Chuckchee Peninsula (AOU 1957, Palmer 1976b). In 

 winter these birds occur in the North Atlantic, east to the Barents Sea and oc- 

 casionally in the Baltic, and in the north Pacific to the Kurile Island and 

 Okhotsk Sea regions (Palmer 1976b). 



The King Eider occurs only as a vagrant in the southeastern United States. 

 In North Carolina there are five records prior to 1937 (Simpson 1970) and five 

 in the 1970's, all of one or a few birds. The three records from South Caro- 

 lina include one bird seen inland (Sprunt and Chamberlain 1949, LeGrand 1979b). 

 There are records of several occurrences in Georgia (Coolidge 1954, Burleigh 

 1958), three from the Gulf coast of Florida (Kale 1979 ms b) , and one each from 

 Alabama (Imhof 1976b) and Texas (Oberholser 1974). 



SUSCEPTIBILITY TO OIL POLLUTION 



There are few reports of King Eiders succumbing to oiling at sea, but as a 

 diving sea-duck it is presumably highly vulnerable to oiling. King and Sanger 

 (1979) regarded this eider as a species for which there should be high concern 

 as to the effects of oiling in the northeast Pacific. However, King Eiders oc- 

 cur only casually in the southeast, and oil accidents there would pose no haz- 

 zard to the species as a whole. 



331 



