seen a weird duck today

[cormier]

It's some sort of eider, I never have seen one like this in New Brunswick, Canada before, but i dont know what kind of eider it is! Here is a pic of one that is similar to the one i seen, exept the one i seen had a patch on the back of the neck that was green insted. It was just laying in the middle of the road when i went to work tonight, i walked to about 5 ft from it befor it flew away. Is this kind of duck supose to be in this part of the contry?

 

[Chris Hagenlocher]

That's a common eider. The males get green on the back of their necks during breeding season.

 

[cormier]

Is it common to have them on the east coat of Canada?

 

[Chris Hagenlocher]

Yep, I believe you can hunt them too. Here's some info I pulled up about their distribution from a bird fact sheet.

The four races of Common Eiders in North America have different breeding ranges. The southern race Somateria mollissima dresseri breeds from Maine to Hamilton Inlet on the Labrador coast; the northern race Somateria mollissima borealis breeds from northern Labrador to Ellesmere Island in the eastern Canadian Arctic; the Hudson Bay race Somateria mollissima sedentaria remains all year within Hudson Bay; and the Pacific race Somateria mollissima v-nigra breeds from Coronation Gulf in the MacKenzie District of the Northwest Territories to the south side of the Alaskan peninsula. Three subspecies are found outside North America: one in northwest Europe, one in Iceland and a third in the Faeroe Islands north of Great Britain.

Hope this helps. Did you know that Common Eiders are the largest duck in the northern hemisphere?

 

[cormier]

right on, thank's for the info, I will look in to it if we can hunt them here or not.

 

[george w]

the eider with the straightish bill is a northern--its cousin is the common-the one with the curved bill process
Topmost edge of bill is much narrower than the common--take note--if you can hunt eider, you can hunt that one!