The Spectacled Eider is a medium-sized sea duck with males easily recognized by their striking“clown-like” head plumage. This species was listed as threatened in 1993 under the EndangeredSpecies Act as it has suffered severe population declines in western Alaska. The Arctic CoastalPlain population may also be declining. In Arctic Alaska, breeding Spectacled Eiders use riverdeltas and wet tundra habitats, including drained-lake basins, flooded wetlands, and islets withina matrix of thaw lakes for both nesting and foraging (Petersen et al. 2000). During the breedingseason, their diet consists primarily of both adult and larval aquatic insects (Petersen et al. 2000).Alaskan breeders spend their winters offshore in the Bering Sea, often amassed in smallopenings in the pack ice (Petersen et al. 2000). Current Arctic Coastal Plain population isestimated at 6-8,000 (http://seaduckjv.org/infoseries/spei_sppfactsheet.pdf).
