Current view: Data table and detailed info
Taxonomic source(s)
AERC TAC. 2003. AERC TAC Checklist of bird taxa occurring in Western Palearctic region, 15th Draft. Available at: http://www.aerc.eu/DOCS/Bird_taxa_of_the_WP15.xls.
Cramp, S. and Simmons, K.E.L. (eds). 1977-1994. Handbook of the birds of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The birds of the western Palearctic. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A. and Fishpool, L.D.C. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Non-passerines. Lynx Edicions BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.
IUCN Red List criteria met and history
Red List criteria met
Red List history
| Migratory status |
full migrant |
Forest dependency |
does not normally occur in forest |
| Land-mass type |
continent
|
Average mass |
- |
Population justification: Wetlands International (2020) estimate the global population to number 360,000-400,000 individuals, in line with the 2010 estimate based on aerial surveys of winter flocks in the Bering Sea of 369,122 individuals, rounded here to 370,000 individuals (Larned et al. 2012). This equates to 246,081 mature individuals, rounded here to 250,000 mature individuals, as estimated by Partners in Flight (2019).
Trend justification:
Previously, the Russian and Alaskan populations were of a roughly similar size, with the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta holding on average 50,000 pairs (see Dau and Kistchinski 1977). However, the population in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta underwent a massive crash in the late 20th Century, such that by 1992 only 1,721 pairs remained (Stehn et al. 1993). The population in this area has since slightly recovered and potentially stabilised (Sea Duck Joint Venture 2016, Fischer et al. 2017, Swaim 2017) and by 2017, the population was estimated to number 6,956 individuals (Wilson et al. 2018). Russia is now however, considered to hold 90% of the breeding population (Warnock 2017, D. Solovyeva in litt. 2018).
In Arctic Alaska the population is not thought to have undergone such severe declines as in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, though clear data about population trends were lacking due to the timing of surveys potentially missing many individuals who leave the breeding grounds early (Stehn et al. 2013). More recent surveys have shown the species to potentially be declining there, though these declines appear to be very slight, and not statistically significant (Stehn et al. 2013). There has not been as much survey work conducted throughout the Russian population and so trends have been difficult to determine there. However, recent surveys from Ayopechan Island have shown the population there to be decreasing rapidly (Solovyeva et al. 2017b).
For past declines, we would have to look at the period since the early 1990s, and so the rapid declines in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta population would not be included. Instead, over this time period there has been an increase in this population (although recent evidence suggests an overestimation of the recent population size and that the population increase and recovery may not have been as strong as first assumed [Lewis et al. 2019]), and a non-significant decline in the other Alaskan population. Amundson et al. (2019) considered Spectacled Eider populations to be stable throughout much of their core range on the North Slope of Alaska, increasing between Admiralty Bay and Teshepuk Lake but declining along the Alaskan coast south of Point Lay. However, if Ayopechan Island is representative for the whole of the Russian range then the overall population trend could be a rapid decline. Declines there have been at a rate of 8% per annum between 2009 and 2016; such declines continued through to 2019 (Solovyeva et al. 2017b, D. Solovyeva in litt. 2020), which could mean that the overall population trend in the past 3 generations was a decline c.39% (assuming that overall the other populations are stable, and the population in Russia returned to stability after 2016). If this is brought forward to look at potential current, ongoing trends, it could be that the species is undergoing a decline that could end up as high as c.79% over 3 generations over the period 2009-2035 (assuming stable Alaskan populations, and declines continue at the same rate in Russia). However, this does depend on the assumption that trends on Ayopechan Island are representative of the entire Russian range, which contains the vast majority of the global population. Recent evidence from the Chaun Delta, Chukotka, Russia, evidenced a x3.7 decline in nest density between 2011-2019 with a x4.1 decline in the number of observed individuals during the same period, further supporting a declining trend in the Russian population (D. Solovyeva in litt. 2020).
Solovyeva et al. (2017a) provide evidence that overall population trends may depend more on conditions at the over-wintering area rather than breeding-site-specific threats, so it is plausible that these trends could be affecting the whole of the Russian population. The first surveys of the wintering flocks in the Bering Sea since 2009-2010 were planned for March 2019 (K. Martin in litt. 2018), and these will likely be the best avenue to get a quantification of the overall population trend, as it is thought that the entire global population may over-winter in this area. Before this information becomes available though, it is tentatively suspected that the population is undergoing a moderately rapid decline.
Country/territory distribution
Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA)
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Spectacled Eider Somateria fischeri. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/spectacled-eider-somateria-fischeri on 22/11/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 22/11/2024.
