Audubon Arctic Wall Calendar 2022 Augurs King Eiders as August Birds

Summary: Audubon Arctic Wall Calendar 2022 augurs king eiders as August birds whom the National Audubon Society admires in Arctic, near-Arctic North America.

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Breeding male king eiders amaze sentient audiences with their orange-red bills; black-outlined, orange-red frontal shields; green cheeks; blue-white crowns and napes; rose-blushed breasts; black bellies with white-patched flanks; black, short tails; black upperparts and wings, with long, triangular sail-like feathers. They perhaps amaze less as molting, non-breeding mailes with white-patched faces, white breasts and female-like black, black-brown, brown bodies, heads and tails; King Eider (Somateria spectabilis) under synonym of King Duck (Fuligula spectabilis, Lath); Drawn from Nature by J.J. Audubon, F.R.S., F.L.S.; Engraved, Printed & Coloured by R. Havell, 1835; John James Audubon, The Birds of America, No. 56, Plate CCLXXVII: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Audubon Arctic Wall Calendar 2022 augurs king eiders as August birds whom the National Audubon Society admires along Alaskan and Canadian coastlines and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago in Arctic, near-Arctic North America.

The Anseriformes (from Latin ānser, “goose” and -fōrmis, “-shaped”) waterfowl order member breeds, June through September, on tundra (from Lappish тӯннтрэ via Russian ту́ндра, “treeless flatlands”). The Anatidae (from Latin anas, “duck” and Greek -ειδής, “-like” via Latin -idæ) water-bird family member configures as solitary couples on coastal tundra lakes and pools, Somateria spectabilis (from Greek σῶμα, “body” and ἔριον, “wool”; from Latin spectō, spectāre, “I look at, to look at” and -ābilis, “-able”) domiciles near sea waters.

King eiders, examined by Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778), expect breeding-friendly, low-lying, well-drained islands, lakes and marshes; and non-breeding-, winter-season, southern-edged ice-pack coastal waters.

Arctic, near-Arctic coastal Alaskan United States, Canada, Greenland and Russia appeal as breeding areas June through September to king eiders, to whom coastal eastern Canada and the United States south through Virginia; coastal southern Alaska; coastal Far Eastern Russia south through the Kamchatka Peninsula; coastal Finland and Norway; coastal Iceland; and coastal southern-tip Greenland appeal as non-breeding areas October through May; Friday, June 29, 2018, image of geographical distribution of king eider, with orange=breeding, blue=non-breeding; adapted from BirdLife International and Handbook of the Birds of the World (2016) 2013 Somateria spectabilis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2022-2 @ https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22680409/132526730: Simon Pierre Barrette (Cephas), CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

King eider mothers-to-be fit their single-brooded clutches into natural, shallow depressions that function as grass-bladed, heather-stemmed nests, with which they furnish area vegetation, down, feathery linings.

Female king eiders gestate 4 to 7 or 3 to 8 olive-white, semi-glossy, smooth, sub-elliptical, 2.59-inch (66-millimeter) by 1.73-inch (44-millimeter) eggs for 22- to 23-day incubations. The eggs that king eider mothers-to-be have on their own, without any help from their mate, hatch into downy, precocial (precocious, from Latin praecox, “early-ripened”) nestlings. Nestling intervals inspire brown-olive upper-sides; buff-white undersides; buff-white-sided heads; dark, narrow streaks from eyes nape-ward; buff-white chins, throats, breasts; blue-pink to gray-olive bills; and gray-olive legs.

The National Audubon Society jubilates king eiders as August birds on Audubon Arctic Wall Calendar 2022 even as king eider females jubilate 2023-gestated eggs and nestlings.

King eider eggs are olive-white, semi-glossy, smooth, sub-elliptical, 2.59 inches (66 millimeters) long and 1.73 inches (44 millimeters) wide; Thursday, Sep. 27, 2018, image of king eider (Somateria spectabilis) eggs from same spawn, collected Jan. 7, 1997, at Barrow (Utqiagvik; Inupiaq: Utqiaġvik, as of Dec. 1, 2016), North Slope Borough, northwestern coastal Alaska, Arctic Circle; Collection Jacques Perrin de Brichambaut (Oct. 18, 1920-March 17, 2007), Muséum de Toulouse (Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle de la ville de Toulouse, MHNT), Jardin des Plantes de Toulouse, quartier de Busca-Montplaisir, Toulouse center, Haute-Garonne department, Occitania region, southwest France: Roger Culos (Ercé), CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

The newest generation of nestling king eiders kindles king eider mothers keeping their broods together so that all nestlings know pre-fledgling skills at the same time.

Thirty- to 50-day-old king eiders launch their first flights, which ultimately look adult-like in the direct, rapid patterns that lead them to and from overwintering lands. Juvenile and mature king eiders master diving and swimming skills, which perhaps most matter for overwintering mealtimes in maximally 66-foot- (20-meter-) deep southern-edged ice-pack coastal waters. They nourish themselves on terrestrial insects and plants in breeding-season habitats between June and September and crustaceans, mollusks and starfish in overwintering habitats October through May.

Audubon Arctic Wall Calendar 2022 observes king eiders as August birds in breeding-season occurrences as black, bright-colored, white fathers-to-be and fathers and unassuming-colored mothers-to-be and mothers.

Female king eiders attain unassuming appearances as black- and long-billed; black-eyed; black- and brown-backed; black-, brown- and white-breasted; black-brown- and v-marked along their sides; Thursday, Aug. 18, 2011, 18:45, image of female king eider at Alaska Sea Life Center, Resurrection Bay, Seward (Alutiiq: Qutalleq; Dena'ina: Tl'ubugh), Kenai Peninsula (Dena'ina: Yaghenen), southern coastal Alaska: DickDaniels (http://theworldbirds.org/), CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Female king possess dark-, long-billed profiles; dark eyes; black-, brown-, buff-scalloped breasts; black-brown upperparts; and black, brown, buff underparts with v-marked black, black-brown, brown, buff sides.

King eiders quarter, as molting, non-breeding, second-wintering males, orange-red bills, white-patched faces, white breasts and unassuming female-like black, black-brown, brown, buff bodies, heads, tails and wings. Black-bodied, black-tailed, black-winged, green-cheeked, white-under-winged males reveal orange-red bills; black-outlined orange-red frontal shields; blue-white crowns and napes; rose-blushed breasts; triangular sail-like wing-feathers; and white-patched black flanks. Physical and sexual maturity secures king eiders with 18.5- to 25-inch- (47- to 64-centimeter-) long, 2.75- to 4.75-pound (1.2- 5o 2.1-kilogram) bodies and 37-inch (94-centimeter) wingspans.

King eiders as August birds on Audubon Arctic Wall Calendar 2022 tender dove-like, low, rising-falling, rolled arrrooooo and soft cooo courting calls to croaking, grunting females.

Molting, non-breeding male king eiders, apart their white-patched faces and white breasts, attain unassuming appearances more like black-, black-brown-, brown-bodied, headed and tailed female king eiders than like black-, blue-white-, green-, red-orange-colored breeding king eider males; Saturday, March 24, 2012, 10:38, image of male king eider (Somateria spectabilis), Akranes, West Iceland: Ómar Runólfsson, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Breeding male king eiders amaze sentient audiences with their orange-red bills; black-outlined, orange-red frontal shields; green cheeks; blue-white crowns and napes; rose-blushed breasts; black bellies with white-patched flanks; black, short tails; black upperparts and wings, with long, triangular sail-like feathers. They perhaps amaze less as molting, non-breeding mailes with white-patched faces, white breasts and female-like black, black-brown, brown bodies, heads and tails; King Eider (Somateria spectabilis) under synonym of King Duck (Fuligula spectabilis, Lath); Drawn from Nature by J.J. Audubon, F.R.S., F.L.S.; Engraved, Printed & Coloured by R. Havell, 1835; John James Audubon, The Birds of America, No. 56, Plate CCLXXVII: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:276_King_Duck.jpg; No copyright--United States (NoC--US), via ULS (University of Pittsburgh Library System) @ https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3Aaud0276; Birds of America, vol. VI (1843), No. 81, Plate 404, opposite page 347, Not in copyright, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40392944; Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/61021753@N02/8591652223/

Arctic, near-Arctic coastal Alaskan United States, Canada, Greenland and Russia appeal as breeding areas June through September to king eiders, to whom coastal eastern Canada and the United States south through Virginia; coastal southern Alaska; coastal Far Eastern Russia south through the Kamchatka Peninsula; coastal Finland and Norway; coastal Iceland; and coastal southern-tip Greenland appeal as non-breeding areas October through May; Friday, June 29, 2018, image of geographical distribution of king eider, with orange=breeding, blue=non-breeding; adapted from BirdLife International and Handbook of the Birds of the World (2016) 2013 Somateria spectabilis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2022-2 @ https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22680409/132526730: Simon Pierre Barrette (Cephas), CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Somateria_spectabilis_map.svg

King eider eggs are olive-white, semi-glossy, smooth, sub-elliptical, 2.59 inches (66 millimeters) long and 1.73 inches (44 millimeters) wide; Thursday, Sep. 27, 2018, image of king eider (Somateria spectabilis) eggs from same spawn, collected Jan. 7, 1997, at Barrow (Utqiagvik; Inupiaq: Utqiaġvik, as of Dec. 1, 2016), North Slope Borough, northwestern coastal Alaska, Arctic Circle; Collection Jacques Perrin de Brichambaut (Oct. 18, 1920-March 17, 2007), Muséum de Toulouse (Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle de la ville de Toulouse, MHNT), Jardin des Plantes de Toulouse, quartier de Busca-Montplaisir, Toulouse center, Haute-Garonne department, Occitania region, southwest France: Roger Culos (Ercé), CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Somateria_spectabilis_MHNT.ZOO.2010.11.27.3.jpg

Female king eiders attain unassuming appearances as black- and long-billed; black-eyed; black- and brown-backed; black-, brown- and white-breasted; black-brown- and v-marked along their sides; Thursday, Aug. 18, 2011, 18:45, image of female king eider at Alaska Sea Life Center, Resurrection Bay, Seward (Alutiiq: Qutalleq; Dena'ina: Tl'ubugh), Kenai Peninsula (Dena'ina: Yaghenen), southern coastal Alaska: DickDaniels (http://theworldbirds.org/), CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:King_Eider_RWD.jpg

Molting, non-breeding male king eiders, apart their white-patched faces and white breasts, attain unassuming appearances more like black-, black-brown-, brown-bodied, headed and tailed female king eiders than like black-, blue-white-, green-, red-orange-colored breeding king eider males; Saturday, March 24, 2012, 10:38, image of male king eider (Somateria spectabilis), Akranes, West Iceland: Ómar Runólfsson, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Somateria_spectabilis,_Akranes_6.jpg

For further information:

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BirdLife International. 2016. "King Eider Somateria spectabilis." The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T22680409A85982676. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22680409A85982676.en
Available @ https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22680409/132526730

Bull, John; and John Farrand, Jr. July 1977. "136, 154 King Eider Somateria spectabilis." Pages 404-405. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Eastern Region. Revised by John Farrand, Jr. Second edition, fully revised, fifth printing, July 1977. Chanticleer Press Edition. New York NY: Borzoi Book, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

Cleary, Margot Keam. 1991. "King Eider." Pages 82-83. In: John James Audubon. New York NY: Crescent Books.

Howell, Catherine Herbert (Writer); and Mary B. Dickinson (Editor). 1999. "King Eider Somateria spectabilis." Pages 88-89. Field Guide to the Birds of North America. Third Edition. Washington DC: National Geographic Society.

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Marriner, Derdriu. 3 June 2023. "Rock Ptarmigans Act as June Birds on Audubon Arctic Wall Calendar 2023." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
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