Loons
Order: Gaviiformes. Family: Gaviidae
Loons are aquatic birds size of a large duck, to which they are unrelated. Their plumage is largely grey or black, they have spear-shaped bills. Loons swim well, and fly adequately, but, because their legs are placed towards the rear of the body, are almost hopeless on land.
- Red-throated Loon, Gavia stellata
- Arctic Loon, Gavia arctica
- Pacific Loon, Gavia pacifica
- Common Loon, Gavia immer
- Yellow-billed Loon, Gavia adamsii
Read more about this topic: List Of Birds Of The United States
Famous quotes containing the word loons:
“At length, having come up fifty rods off, he uttered one of those prolonged howls, as if calling on the god of loons to aid him, and immediately there came a wind from the east and rippled the surface, and filled the whole air with misty rain, and I was impressed as if it were the prayer of the loon answered, and his god was angry with me; and so I left him disappearing far away on the tumultuous surface.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)