Steller's eider is a migrating Arctic diving duck that breeds along the coastlines of eastern Russia and Alaska. It is the rarest, smallest, and fastest flying of the eider species.
Image: Steller's Eider (Polysticta stelleri) (13667966664)
Image: Stellershen 3
Male Steller's eider in breeding plumage
Marshy tundra, Alaska, U.S.
Georg Wilhelm Steller was a German-born naturalist and explorer who contributed to the fields of biology, zoology, and ethnography. He participated in the Great Northern Expedition (1733–1743) and his observations of the natural world helped the exploration and documentation of the flora and fauna of the North Pacific region.
Georg Wilhelm Steller
Steller's Arch on Bering Island
A 2009 memorial to Steller in a riverside park in Tyumen, Siberia, where he had died of fever at age 37.
A statue in Bad Windsheim commemorating Georg Wilhelm Steller