---
title: "King Eider"
description: "Somateria spectabilis — Uccelli. The king eider (pronounced ) (Somateria spectabilis) is a large sea duck that breeds along Northern Hemisphere Arctic coasts of northeast Europe, North America and Asia."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/it/animal/king-eider
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# King Eider

> Somateria spectabilis — Uccelli. The king eider (pronounced ) (Somateria spectabilis) is a large sea duck that breeds along Northern Hemisphere Arctic coasts of northeast Europe, North America and Asia.

- Scientific name: *Somateria spectabilis*
- Category: `birds` (Uccelli)
- Habitats: `sea` (Mare e costa), `arctic` (Artico)
- iNaturalist observations: 2852
- Wikidata: [Q207846](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q207846)
- iNaturalist taxon: [7030](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/7030)

## Names

- en: King Eider
- de: Prachteiderente
- es: Éider real
- fr: Eider à tête grise
- nl: Koningseider
- pt: Êider-real
- pl: Turkan

## Countries with the most observations

US (1129), CA (741), RU (241), SJ (142), NO (94), FR (64), GB (24), GL (24), IS (23), SE (16), DK (13), PT (9)

## Summary

The king eider (pronounced ) (Somateria spectabilis) is a large sea duck that breeds along Northern Hemisphere Arctic coasts of northeast Europe, North America and Asia. The birds spend most of the year in coastal marine ecosystems at high latitudes, and migrate to Arctic tundra to breed in June and July. They lay four to seven eggs in a scrape on the ground lined with grass and down.

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_eider

## Photo

![King Eider](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/king-eider/medium.jpg)

Photo: Adam Jackson · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/256462973

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/king-eider?lang=it` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).