
The Weird Magic of Eiderdown - vr46
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/19/eiderdown-harvesting-iceland-eider-duck
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nkurz
The article mentions the big difference between eiderdown and other downs, but
doesn't really stress it. Eiderdown is different than all other commercial
downs in that it is harvested from used nests, rather than directly from the
bird. The birds pluck their own down, use it to line their nests, raise their
chicks, and then the "farmers" collect the down after the ducks have left. All
other downs are plucked by humans from a dead (or dying) bird.

I was excited enough about eider down to plan a vacation largely around it.
Instead of Iceland, we went to the Vega Islands off the north coast of Norway.
It was a beautiful area. The BBC has some nice pictures here:
[http://www.bbc.com/travel/gallery/20181001-the-worlds-
lighte...](http://www.bbc.com/travel/gallery/20181001-the-worlds-lightest-
warmest-and-most-expensive-down).

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jay_kyburz
Actually, down is often harvested from living birds so they can regrow their
feathers to be plucked again.

Here is a video from Peta. WARNING: It's not easy to watch.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTfZiVi6Kdo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTfZiVi6Kdo)

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arethuza
That's pretty horrible - but I skimmed through that and I didn't see any eider
ducks (could be wrong though) - they are quite distinctive looking birds.

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gdcohen
I grew up with an "Eiderdown" on my bed, and until now, mistakenly thought of
it as a synonym for a quilt filled with feathers!

[https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/eiderdown](https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/eiderdown)

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sansnomme
Any comparisons with aerogel?

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nkurz
They are hard to compare directly, since the "magic" of down is its
compressibility, whereas aerogels are typically rigid. Eiderdown is actually
on the lower end of elite downs as far as loft, which is measured as "Fill
Power" (FP): [https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Fill-power-values-
from-e...](https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Fill-power-values-from-eider-
down-in-20-different-nests-in-two-colonies-17-and-18_fig5_315823797)

That said, there is a new synthetic sleeping bag insulation that is using some
amount of added aerogel fragments. Compared to that, high FP goose down of 800
or 900 FP is still much better insulation per ounce:
[https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/new-ul-
synthetic-i...](https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/new-ul-synthetic-
insulation-from-primaloft/#post-3537976).

I don't know if it's in any way a useful comparison, but combining the two
links, one might conclude that eiderdown at a 500 FP is about as insulating as
PrimaLoft Gold with added aerogel.

