Laura Erickson's For the Birds

This sea duck of the Eastern Seaboard, in its own genus but fairly closely related to Steller’s Eider, is the first known endemic North American bird species to become extinct after Europeans arrived in America, with the last known sighting occurring in 1878 in Elmira, New York, so there is limited information about it, but early European naturalists did record some data about its habitat, natural history, dietary habits, and reasons behind its extinction. There are 55 specimens preserved in museum collections worldwide. I photographed the one in the photograph at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences.

The Labrador Duck plays an important role in a lovely movie, A Birder’s Guide to Everything.