Austria (NB), Belarus (NB), Belgium (NB), Bulgaria (NB), Canada (B) (NB) (P), Czech Republic (NB), Denmark (B) (NB) (P), Estonia (B) (NB) (P), Faroe Islands (B) (NB), Finland (B) (NB) (P), France (B) (NB) (P), Germany (B) (NB) (P), Greenland (B) (NB), Iceland (B) (NB), Ireland (B) (NB), Italy (B) (NB), Latvia (NB), Liechtenstein, Lithuania (NB), Macedonia [The Former Yugoslav Republic of] (NB), Netherlands Antilles (B) (NB), Norway (B) (NB) (P), Poland (B) (NB), Romania (NB), Russia (Asian) (B) (NB), Russia (European) (B) (NB), Slovakia (Slovak Republic) (NB), Slovenia (NB), Spain (NB), St Pierre and Miquelon (NB) (P), Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands (B), Sweden (B) (NB) (P), Switzerland (B) (NB), Ukraine (B) (NB) (P), United Kingdom (B) (NB), USA (B).
Vagrant to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia (Local Name: Hrvatska), Georgia, Greece (NB), Hungary (NB), Israel, Japan, Luxembourg, Montenegro (NB), Portugal, Russia (Central Asian), Serbia (NB), Turkey (NB).
Population
Estimated population is 3,100,000 - 3,800,000 (2010).
Common Eider (Somateria mollissima) [XC810019]
by Stein \u00d8. Nilsen from Magheroarty Ferry (near Meenlaragh), County Donegal, County Donegal, Ireland (call)
Common Eider (Somateria mollissima) [XC85947]
by Louis A. Hansen from Seawall, ME, United States (call)
Nest
On the ground, often exposed, lined with down.
Eggs (Guide)
4 - 5; green, usually tinted olive or grey or buff, often with stain spots; ellipsoidal. Incubation: 27 - 28 days; by male.
Subspecies
Closely linked to King Eider (Somateria spectabilis), with which it frequently hybridizes.
The following 6 subspecies are recognised:
mollissima (Linnaeus, 1758) - North-western Europe east to Novaya Zemlya.
faeroeensis Brehm, CL, 1831 - Faeroe Is.
v-nigrum Bonaparte and Gray, GR, 1855 - New Siberian Is (north-eastern Siberia) east to north-western North America.
borealis (Brehm, CL, 1824) - Arctic Atlantic from Baffin I east through Greenland and Iceland to Franz Josef Land.
sedentaria Snyder, 1941 - Hudson Bay region.
dresseri Sharpe, 1871 - Atlantic north-eastern North America.
The Reader's Digest Book of British Birds 1980, 3rd Edition, Drive Publications Ltd ISBN 0 340 25308 8
Birds in Colour Campbell, B., 1960, Penguin Books Ltd
The Pocket Guide to Nest and Eggs Fitter, R.S.R., 1954, Collins
RSPB Handbook of British Birds Holden, P., Cleeves, T., 2002, A & C Black ISBN 0 7136 5713 8
Birds of Britain and Europe Sterry, P., et al., 2001, AA Publishing ISBN 0 7495 3068 5
The Popular Handbook of British Birds Hollom, P.A.D., 1973, H.F. & G. Witherby Ltd ISBN 0 85493 002 7