Diving ecology and migration of a capital breeder, the common eider

The aim of this project is to investigate how migration and seasonal conditions affect the diving and foraging ecology of the common eider. Especially, it will focus on how day-length and temperature affects the diving frequency and the diving depth at di fferent times of the year, while being located in the different parts of its non-breeding distribution which includes high arctic (>76N) and high latitude areas (66- 70N). This is important in order to understand the energetic constraints and consequences of being a capital breeder in the high Arctic, requiring large energy reserves to sustain migration and breeding. The project will be conducted in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard, as a part of the Birdmap project. Small archival tags with temperature, depth, ligt h and time recorders (so-called TDR loggers) have been deployed on common eiders in Kongsfjorden. These birds will be recaptured during the planned field work and data will be downloaded from the TDR loggers. Data processing and statistical analyses of th e dive data and the migration data, as well as the writing of my thesis, will be done after the field work.