Status of the American Eider with Special Reference to Northern New England.

摘要

The American subspecies of the common eider (Somateria mollissima dresseri), known as the American eider, nests primarily on coastal islands from central Labrador to southern Maine. Because banding recoveries revealed that groups that nest in different geographic areas use the same wintering areas, we propose managing this subspecies as one unit, termed the western Atlantic eider population. The annual number of S. m. dresseri nesting in the mid-1980's was estimated to be 71,000 pairs; approximately 60% of these birds nest in eastern Canada (Quebec=34%, Nova Scotia=11%, New Brunswick=10%, and Newfoundland=5%) and 40% in Maine. Data are inadequate to assess the rangewide trend in the abundance of these nesters, but periodic surveys from Maine suggest a population increase during 1960-80, which is now stabilizing.