Common Eider

A heavy sea duck of the Wadden coast

Eiders are big, heavy sea ducks with a long, wedge-shaped head. The drake is black and white with a pale green wash on the back of the neck. The female is warm brown with fine dark bars, very hard to spot on a nest.

They dive for mussels, cockles and crabs and swallow them whole; the shells are crushed in the gizzard. Most of their life is spent at sea, often in big flocks offshore and around the Wadden islands.

The female lines her nest with down plucked from her own breast, the famous eiderdown. In spring the drakes call a soft, cooing "ah-OOO" that drifts across the water.