Facts About Loons

Sep 21, 2010
Toby Welch

Common Loon - P199

Loons are beautiful and majestic birds. Few sights are as inspiring as a loon soaring through blue skies. Those who hear their wail will never forget it.

Loons are mythical looking black birds with white accents on their bellies, wing linings, and necks.

Loons have been gracing Canadian lands since long before people inhabited our country. In fact they have been around since dinosaurs roamed the Earth and are one of the oldest bird groups. There are only 5 types of loons: Common loons, Yellow-billed loons, Red-throated loons, Pacific loons, and Arctic loons.

Facts About Loons

Loons usually live 15-30 years.
There are an estimated 250,000 – 500,000 loons in Canada.
Normal body temperature for a loon is 39 degrees C.
Loons are related to penguins.
Loons have large webbed feet with three toes.
Loons are the only bird with some solid bones.
Male and female loons look the same except the male is slightly larger.
Common loons weigh, on average, 3.6 kilograms.
Loons prefer bodies of water that are over 4 hectares in size.
Loons need a several hundred metre run on land or 400 metres on water to take off.
Most loon dives last about a minute but they can stay submerged for fifteen minutes.
Loons can effortlessly dive to depths of 30 metres and have been recorded at depths of over 80 metres.
During deep dives, a loon’s heart rate can slow to half its usual rate to conserve oxygen.
Loons have bright red eyes. Ornithologists theorize the red eyes improve their camouflage ability underwater or that the red eyes are part of their breeding plumage.
Loons normally do not start to reproduce until their sixth year of life.
The average air speed of a loon is 100 kilometres per hour. They have been clocked at over 160 kilometres per hour.
Loons usually fly 60 metres off the ground but have been detected at altitudes over 2,000 metres.
A loon’s wings normally beat at a rate of 250 beats per minute but can do three times that speed if necessary.
At night, loons sleep on the water to protect themselves from predators.
The Common loon is the provincial bird of Ontario.
Loons from Manitoba and Ontario usually winter in California or Florida.

Loon Babies

Loons often return in the spring to the same nest they used the previous year. A few days after nesting, the female will lay her first egg. About 24 hours later another egg is usually laid. The female and male loons share incubation duties. Approximately one month later the eggs hatch and start swimming the same day. Baby loons grow quickly on a diet of insects and tiny fish. In two months they can catch their own fish.

Loon Diets

A loon’s diet consists mainly of fresh water fish, particularly pike, perch, walleye, trout, bass, sunfish, catfish, minnows, suckers, smelt and bullheads. If necessary, they can eat frogs, salamanders and leeches. They only eat live prey, usually when underwater, and can swallow victims up to 50 centimetres long. When loons live on lakes uninhabited by fish or when the water is murky, they adapt and eat amphibians, small invertebrates, insects or aquatic greens. A loon’s food needs are huge. A loon pair and two chicks will eat one ton of food in a breeding season.

A Loon's Typical Day

Loons have busy lives. They spend a good portion of their day preening to keep their feathers looking good. They squeeze oil from a gland at the base of their tail onto their bill and draw their feathers through their bill. The oiled feathers provide a degree of waterproofing and ensure a loon’s buoyancy. The remainder of their day is spent caring for their young, resting and hunting/eating.

Loon Calls

Loon sounds are unique and memorable. Some people even consider them poetic, creating a demand for loon relaxation tapes. They have four distinct calls:

Yodel – establishes territory and is an aggressive message to nearby birds. Only the male gives this call.
Wail – this night call is a signal for interaction to call other loons closer. Wails are one, two, or three note calls in pure tones and have been compared to a wolf’s howl.
Hoot – used between family members so others can contact and locate them. Hoots are short, single notes.
Tremolo – this crazed laughter signals alarm or distress.

A Loon's Name

The debate continues about how loons got their name. A common theory is that loon comes from the Scandinavian word “lom” which means a clumsy person. A loon looks clumsy and graceless as it walks on land. A loon’s hind legs are placed far back on their bodies to allow for superior water movement resulting in this awkward waddle on land.

Loon Numbers are Declining

Federal Canadian laws protect loons and they cannot be hunted. Despite this, loons are on the decline. The main reason for their decline is loss of habitat as humans invade their territories. Other reasons include oil spills, harassment of nesting loons, water fluctuation levels, water pollution, nest predators, recreational lake usage, use of loons for target practice, lead poisoning from fishing sinkers, and disease. Loons have fought many of these plights since they shared the Earth with dinosaurs but human factors are becoming an enormous issue for loons.

For most Canadians, loons are a welcome addition to our nature-filled life. Their cries lull us to sleep and their lives delight and inspire us. Their sounds and sightings are a symbol of Canadian wilds.