Pacific Loon

Gavia pacifica (Lawrence, 1858)

Pacific Loon, Gavia pacifica, breeds across high Arctic and subarctic North America and the Palearctic, from eastern Siberia to Alaska, western British Columbia, northern Canada, Baffin Island and James Bay. It also winters in Japan, on the Korean Peninsula, in the northern Yellow Sea and off central Baja California. A loon in the family Gaviidae, it is a smaller, sleeker bird than the Common Loon. Breeding adults have a grey head, black throat with purple sheen, white underparts and a chequered black-and-white mantle, while winter birds are plainer and have a grey or whitish dagger-shaped bill.

Order

Gaviiformes

Family

Gaviidae — Loons

Breeding range

North America, Palearctic: high Arctic to subarctic: Yana and Indigirka rivers e to Chukotka (nc, ne Siberia), Wrangel I. (n of ne Siberia), Alaska, wc British Columbia, and n Canada to Baffin I. and James Bay (ne, se Canada)

Nonbreeding range

to Japan, Korean Pen. and n Yellow Sea (ne China); c Baja California (nw Mexico)