Freshwater bird native to North America and Western Europe
Common loon
Adult in breeding plumage in Minocqua, Wisconsin
In non-breeding plumage in Sunset Beach, North Carolina
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:
Eukaryota
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Aves
Order:
Gaviiformes
Family:
Gaviidae
Genus:
Gavia
Species:
G. immer
Binomial name
Gavia immer
(Brünnich, 1764)
Approximate distribution map
Breeding
Migration
Nonbreeding
Synonyms[2]
Colymbus immerBrunnich, 1764
Colymbus glacialisLinnaeus, 1766
The common loon or great northern diver (Gavia immer) is a large member of the loon, or diver, family of birds. Breeding adults have a plumage that includes a broad black head and neck with a greenish, purplish, or bluish sheen, blackish or blackish-grey upperparts, and pure white underparts except some black on the undertail coverts and vent. Non-breeding adults are brownish with a dark neck and head marked with dark grey-brown. Their upperparts are dark brownish-grey with an unclear pattern of squares on the shoulders, and the underparts, lower face, chin, and throat are whitish. The sexes look alike, though males are significantly heavier than females. During the breeding season, loons live on lakes and other waterways in Canada; the northern United States (including Alaska); and southern parts of Greenland and Iceland. Small numbers breed on Svalbard and sporadically elsewhere in Arctic Eurasia. Common loons winter on both coasts of the US as far south as Mexico, and on the Atlantic coast of Europe.
Common loons eat a variety of animal prey including fish, crustaceans, insect larvae, molluscs, and occasionally aquatic plant life. They swallow most of their prey underwater, where it is caught, but some larger items are first brought to the surface. Loons are monogamous; that is, a single female and male often together defend a territory and may breed together for a decade or more. Both members of a pair build a large nest out of dead marsh grasses and other plants formed into a mound along the vegetated shores of lakes. A single brood is raised each year from a clutch of one or two olive-brown oval eggs with dark brown spots which are incubated for about 28 days by both parents. Fed by both parents, the chicks fledge in 70 to 77 days. The chicks are capable of diving underwater when just a few days old, and they fly to their wintering areas before ice forms in the fall.
The common loon is assessed as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species. It is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies. The United States Forest Service has designated the common loon a species of special status because of threats from habitat loss and toxic metal poisoning in its US range.
The common loon is the provincial bird of Ontario, and it appears on Canadian currency, including the one-dollar "loonie" coin and a previous series of $20 bills. In 1961, it was designated the state bird of Minnesota, and appears on the Minnesota State Quarter.
^BirdLife International (2018). "Gavia immer". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018: e.T22697842A132607418. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22697842A132607418.en. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
^Cite error: The named reference hbw2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
The commonloon or great northern diver (Gavia immer) is a large member of the loon, or diver, family of birds. Breeding adults have a plumage that includes...
black-throated loon sister to a clade consisting of the Pacific loon and the two sister species that are the commonloon and the yellow-billed loon. In the former...
facility in Winnipeg. The most prevalent versions of the coin show a commonloon, a bird found throughout Canada, on the reverse and Queen Elizabeth II...
córdoba). It is divided into 100 cents (¢). Owing to the image of a commonloon on its reverse, the dollar coin, and sometimes the unit of currency itself...
Gaviiformes (/ˈɡævi.ɪfɔːrmiːz/) is an order of aquatic birds containing the loons or divers and their closest extinct relatives. Modern gaviiformes are found...
Rutland. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781408133118. Sperry, Mark L. "CommonLoon Attacks on Waterfowl" (PDF). Minnesota Department of Natural Resources...
as shots of nature, including deserts and mountains. Commonloon calls the wailing call of the loon is widely used in film and television to evoke wilderness...
11, 2024, alongside the state flag, for Statehood Day. It features a commonloon, Minnesota's state bird, wild rice, the state grain, and the North Star...
[citation needed] The new coin is colloquially called the "loonie", for the commonloon on its reverse, and the name is frequently applied to the currency unit...
(PDF). Minnesota Historical Society. Youso, Karen (April 7, 2003). "Commonloon was made state bird in 1961". Star Tribune. Archived from the original...
or Hell Divers, may refer to: Grebe, a bird, also called hell-diver Commonloon, a bird, also called hell-diver Helldiver (artist), a graffiti artist...
kingfisher Common linnet CommonloonCommon merganser Common miner Common moorhen Common murre Common myna Common newtonia Common nighthawk Common nightingale...
Sea"), the sports of ice hockey and lacrosse, the beaver, Canada goose, commonloon, Canadian horse, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Canadian Rockies...
by other goldeneye mothers, commonloons and red-necked grebes. The young are capable of flight at 55–65 days of age. Common goldeneyes are diving birds...
a gradual increase in the total amount of land used for growing crops. Common types of farms reported in the 2001 census include those for cattle, small...
attempt to rescue Dory. With the help of two California sea lions and a commonloon named Becky, they get into the institute and find her. Other blue tangs...
the great blue heron, the sandhill crane, the Atlantic puffin and the commonloon. The large land wildlife includes the white-tailed deer, the moose, the...
Rob Quist Great northern diver (Gavia immer), a bird also known as the commonloon Great Northern Elevator, a historic grain elevator in Buffalo, New York...
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