Bird of the Week – Yellow-billed Loon
The Yellow-billed Loon is the largest loon, and likely the rarest in Alaska.
Yellow-billed Loon, Fairbanks
This species’ bill is big, much larger than its cousin’s, the Common Loon. The bill isn’t always yellow; as shown here is is sometime more an ivory color. The Yellow-billed breeds on the Arctic Coast and on the north shores of the Seward Peninsula. It winters off the coast of Alaska, sometimes in large rafts of hundreds or even thousands of birds.
In winter plumage, it can be very difficult to tell Yellow-billed Loons from Common Loons. The bill is your best guide, but at a distance it can be difficult to get the necessary detail.
Populations of Yellow-billeds are declining in North America; the species is classified as near-threatened.
Camera geek stuff: f6.3, 1/320, ISO500.
For more bird photos, please visit Frozen Feather Images.
The problem with the bill coloration is easily solvabke. I read this once in a book about Professional White Hunters in Africa. The lucky ones that have to track wounded animals at night have over-sized front sights of wart hog ivory because wart hog ivory does not yellow like elephant ivory. So Ma Nature goofed up big time when choosing bill materials for the Loon. If only she had read Death in the Long Grass by Peter Hathaway Capstick,she would have known this.
What’s more-warthogs aren’t endangered and their long ivory tusks make great bottle openers,too.Or so I have been told.