BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
By FLORENCE MERRIAM BAILEY 
With State Records by WELLS WOODBRIDGE COOKE 
LOONS: Order Gaviiformes 
LOONS: Family Gaviidae 
The Loons are web-footed divers with straight, sharp-pointed 
bills, long bodies, strong wings, and short tails. They can change their 
specific gravity by inhaling or expelling the air from their lungs and 
air-sacs. 
LOON: G&via immer (Brtinnich) 
Description. — Length: 1 28-36 inches, wing 13-15.2, bill 2.7-3.5 (tail 2.6-4 
Forbush). Adults in summer plumage: Head and neck greenish black, neck with 
series of parallel white lines; back and wings black, spotted and barred with white; 
underparts mainly white; iris red, bill black, legs and feet black and bluish gray. 
Adults in winter plumage: Generally dark brown or blackish above with no light 
From Biological Survey 
Fig. 1 . Loons 
Our wild-voiced visitors from the north 
feather edgings; back with faint suggestion of white spotting; chin, throat, and 
underparts mainly white; iris reddish brown, bill and feet lighter than in summer. 
Young in first winter plumage: Upperparts blackish brown, with broad light gray 
feather edging; throat and breast often mottled; iris brown, bill smaller than in 
adult and never black. 
Range. —Northern part of Northern Hemisphere. In America breeds from 
Kotzebue Sound and Arctic coasts and islands, including northern Greenland, 
south to Massachusetts (rarely), northern parts of New York, Iowa, in Wyoming, 
and California; winters from British Columbia (on salt water), Great Lakes, and 
Maine to Florida, the Gulf Coast, and Lower California. 
Measurement of bird from tip of bill to tip of tail. 
73 
