Gently Down by danob

Photography • Creatures • posted on Feb 04, 2009

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Description

I was tucking in my grandson with a nice Eider Down quilt and he wanted to know what sort of bird was used for the feathers! Typical child logic then wanted to know if they were extinct if all the poor Ducks were used for this!! Good question I thought, but when looking it up not bad news! The eider duck is native to the Northern hemisphere, and can be found in many Northern nations. The male of the species is black and white, while the female is colored in shades of brown. Both ducks are very stocky, and have wedge-like bills which are quite distinctive. When eider ducks settle down to nest, they pull out their insulating down to line the nest. After abandoning the nest, the eiderdown is available for harvest. Not only is eiderdown harvesting not harmful to the birds, it actually helps them. In nations which harvest significant amounts of eiderdown, there are large regions set aside for the ducks to nest in. These protected areas also shelter other wetland species. The ducks are not hunted or harassed, and tend to be rather outgoing and friendly as a result. However, the painstaking harvest process for eiderdown does make it more expensive than other comparable products.