The Common Eider

The distinctive black and white drakes with more subtly feathered females can be seen around the coasts of Vigur all year round but the colony arrives to breed in May when the island becomes covered in over 3,500 amazingly well-camouflaged nests. Collecting the down begins in June and is by tradition a community activity with all hands helping to harvest the precious fluff.

Worldwide, just 3 tonnes of eiderdown is collected every year and some 85% of that originates in Iceland. Considering that this global yeild of eiderdown is sufficient to produce just 3000 duvets, it is clear just how rare and how valuable eiderdown is as a commodity. It takes down from approximately 60 nests to amass 1kg and Vigur produces around 50kg of eiderdown each year. It is processed initially on the island using a handful of traditional machines that can be seen by visitors in the Down Processing Plant. The eiderdown is finally picked clean by hand before the majority is sold in Germany and Japan.