Annual movement patterns of American common eiders Somateria mollissima dresseri

The American common eider Somateria mollissima dresseri is a sea duck of coastal mid-Atlantic North America, and breeding colonies in the southern part of its range have been in decline. To better understand threats faced by the subspecies, we used satellite telemetry to track 46 eiders through their annual cycle in four years from three regions in the southern part of the range, to identify key locations and migratory corridors. Female eiders exhibited highly variable movement phenology within and among colonies, but coastal Maine and Massachusetts were consistent, important moulting areas for males and females from all breeding colonies. Most birds wintered in coastal waters around Cape Cod and Nantucket Sound, meaning that threats in this region (industrial development, disease outbreak, harvest) could have deleterious effects on much of the population.