Eider (Somateria mollissima)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Vertebrate > bird > Bird |
| Red List Status: | Endangered (Non-breeding) [EN(nbr)] |
| D5 Status: | Included in the baseline Red List Index for England (Wilkins, Wilson & Brown, 2022) |
| Section 41 Status: | (not listed) |
| Taxa Included Synonym: | (none) |
| UKSI Recommended Name: | Somateria mollissima |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (Linnaeus, 1758) |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | Stanbury et al., 2021 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Eng WeBS trends (25 yr -49%, 10 yr -44%) |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Declining wintering population that may be at risk as bycatch in fisheries. |
| Question 3: | At a landscape scale, would the species benefit from untargeted habitat management to increase habitat mosaics, structural diversity, or particular successional stages? |
| Response: | No |
| Justification: | Species uses coastal waters. |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 4. Autecology and pressures understood |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Medium-high |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Structured - sufficient |
| Species Comments: | Does WeBS survey cover Eider sufficiently? |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Consider and as appropriate implement the recommendations of the SPA Reviews for this species. This should include both outstanding actions from the 2001 Review and additional recommendations of the 2016 Review.
Action targets: 7. Best approach adopted at appropriate scales
Action type: Site protection
Duration: >10 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 5 sites
High priority sites:
Comments:
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Determine the key drivers of change for wintering Eider populations in England through targeted studies, including the impact of bycatch on survival rates
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Scientific research
Duration: 2 years
Scale of Implementation: Not applicable
High priority sites:
Comments:
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: English population is largely resident, so increase in wintering population may be best achieved by increasing productivity - identifying sites and trialling interventions to reduce predation of breeding females would be beneficial.
Action targets: 6. Recovery solutions trialled
Action type: Pressure mitigation
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: Unknown
High priority sites:
Comments:
Acknowledgment:
Data used on this website are adapted from Threatened species recovery actions 2025 baseline (JP065): Technical report and spreadsheet user guide (Natural England, 2025). Available here.