King Eider Spotted

This morning it was reported on the Swedish birders spotting site Svalan that a King Eider (praktejder) had been seen from Älgö in Saltsjöbaden, 20 km east of Stockholm. Unfortunately the report also said the King Eider went into a fog and when the fog disappeared the Eider could not be found. But anyhow Lennart J and I took a quick drive to possible find it. And there we were very lucky to find this very beautiful and here seldom seen bird among some Eiders. It was a first one for both of us.

We first sighted the bird from about 1,000 meters distance. Here it is from 500 meters distance.

Until now in month March the King Eider has been reported by 46 birders in Sweden and 40 in Norway. This male bird is probably on its way to its breeding quarters of the coastal waters of Bering Sea. See info in Wikipedia.