Just rolling off: You’ve probably heard the expression “like water off a duck’s back.” Here's where that idiom comes from. The spectacled eider’s feathers are so waterproof that the water just beads up and rolls off. This image of the near-threatened species, which breeds on the coasts of Alaska and Siberia, attracted nearly a million Instagram likes. Nat Geo Explorer Tim Laman photographed this male at the Ripley Waterfowl Conservancy in Connecticut, which maintains genetic diversity of rare and endangered species.
The National Geographic Society has funded Laman’s work documenting rare and endangered birds. Photo by ©Tim Laman
I am so happy to see this bird since I sleep under an Eiderdown comforter almost every night. I don't think I have ever seen a photo of an Eider and I'm sure I would have remembered such an unusual looking waterfowl.
