Black-throated Diver, known in North America as Arctic Loon (Gavia arctica), is a medium-sized member of the loon or diver family.
It breeds in Eurasia and occasionally in western Alaska. It winters at sea or on large lakes over a much wider range.
Breeding adults are 63 cm to 75 cm in length with a 100 cm to 122 cm wingspan. They are like a smaller, sleeker version of the Great Northern Diver. They have a grey head, black throat, white underparts and chequered black-and-white mantle. Non-breeding plumage is drabber with the chin and foreneck white. Its bill is grey or whitish and dagger-shaped. In all plumages a white flank patch distinguishes this species from all other divers including the otherwise almost identical Pacific Diver.
This species, like all divers, is a specialist fish-eater, catching its prey underwater. It flies with neck outstretched.
A loon is the size of a large duck, to which it is unrelated; its plumage is largely grey or fl, and it has a spear-shaped bill.
These were previously considered the most ancient of the northern hemisphere bird families, but it has recently become clear that the Anseriformes (ducks, geese and swans) and the Galliformes (the pheasants and their allies) are older groups.
The Common Loon is the national bird of Canada and is depicted on the Canadian one-dollar coin, which has come be affectionately known as the loonie.
A loon is the size of a large duck, which it resembles, but is unrelated; its plumage is largely grey or fl, and it has a spear-shaped bill.
The genus name Gavia is Latin for "Smew", even though loons are not smews.
The European name diver comes from the bird's habit of catching fish by swimming calmly along the surface and then abruptly plunging into the water; the North American name loon comes from the bird's haunting, yodeling cry, a symbol of the Canadian wilds.
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