Red-throated Loon (Gavia stellata) Bird Profile

Red-throated loon, scientific name Gavia stellata is a bird named in North America or red-throated ducks in Britain and Ireland, is a migratory aquatic bird found in the Northern Hemisphere.

The longest member of the loon or Dewbury family, it mainly breeds winters in the Arctic and north coastal waters. Painted in lengths of 55 to 67 cm (22 to 26 inches), the red-throated loon is the smallest and lightest of the world’s lawns.

In winter, the Red-throated loon is a nondescript bird, gray to bottom and gray to white at the bottom. During the breeding season, the Red-throated loon achieves a tastefully reddish neck patch that is the basis of its common name.

Fishes make up the majority of their diet, though the contents of both bovine, electronic plants, and plants are occasionally eaten side by side.

A homogeneous, Red-throated loon forms long-term pair bonds. Both members of the shoe help in nesting, hatching eggs (usually two per clutch), and feeding on the weeding baby.

Red-throated loon has a large population and a significant global range, although some populations are declining.

Oil spills, habitat depletion, pollution, and fishing nets are among the major threats facing this species. Natural predators – Various flowering species and both red and Arctic foxes will take eggs and young. The species is protected by international agreements.

Description

Like other members of its genus, the Red-throated loon adapts well to its aquatic environment: its thick bones help to sink, its legs – located behind them – provide excellent propagation, and its body is long and flowing.

Even its sharply directed bill can help it sink to the bottom. Its legs are large, its front three toes fully webbed, and its tarsus is flat, which reduces drag and allows the foot to move easily through the water.

The Red-throated loon is the smallest and lightest of the world’s loon species, with wings that are 7-22 cm (5 – 8 inches) in length and weigh 8-2.7 kg (2.2–6.0 lbs).

Like all loons, it is long-bodied and short-throated, and its legs are far behind in its body. The set sex is similar in appearance, though slightly larger and heavier than men.

In the breeding plumage, the adult Red-throated loon has a grayish gray head and neck (thin black and white stripes on the back of the neck), a triangular red neck patch, white underparts, and a dark gray-brown color. In the breeding plumage, it is the only weed in the dark.

The non-reproductive plumage is chewy, foredeck, and much of the face is white, the head and top of the neck are gray and dark white, with white spots stained with iris red to burgundy, its legs black on the outer half and half of the interior pale, and the net of the feet are pinkish-brown and Dark edge.

Its bill is slender, sharp, and sharp and is often held at a higher angle. The bird’s name is Peggy-Owl loon, a North American man, a reference to its sharply pointed bill, the sailor’s sailor (a tool known as “Pegging Owl” in New England).

Although the color of the bills changes from black to winter to gray in the summer, changing the color does not necessarily coincide with the overall plumage variation of the bird. Nasarica is a narrow incision near the base of the bill.

When it first emerges from its egg, the young Red-throated loon is covered with a fine soft down feather. Initially dark brown to dark gray on top, it is a bit blunt on the lateral part of the head and neck, as well as with grayish lower breasts and abdomen on the neck, chest, and skin.

Within a few weeks, this first one was replaced by a second set of feathers below, which in turn develops into a juvenile feather. Adolescent plumage is similar to that of adults, although there are a few distinct characteristics.

Its forehead and neck are thick, with a heavy rash on both the neck and neck. Its back is brown and less greasy, and its underparts are brown in color. Its eyes are reddish-brown and its beak is pale gray.

Although some young birds hold these feathers until the middle of winter, many are virtually separated from adults very quickly, except for their bills.

On the flight, the Red-throated loon’s hinged profile is distinctive.

On the flight, the red-throated loon has a distinct profile; Its short legs do not project to the end of its body, it comes down to the bottom of the head and neck horizontally (giving the flying bird a distinct crunchy shape) and its thin wings are angled back. It has a faster, deeper wing than other loons.

Accommodation and distribution

The Red-throated loons are predominantly coastal tundra, often in very small lakes

The Red-throated loon is mainly winter in northern Eurasia and North American Arctic regions (usually north of 50 ° N latitude) and in northern coastal waters, sometimes in groups of considerable size.

For example, in the eastern part of the German Byte, Ely 4la spent more than 4,400 winters in winter in concentration. Unlike other loons, it uses a very small freshwater lake as a regular breeding site.

Its smaller size renders it more versatile, but it is less likely to feed on deep prey. Increasing the size and diversity of the remaining species of loons implies that the benefits of larger sizes are greater than the limits.

In North America, it was a regular winter on both coasts, northwest to the Baja California peninsula in Mexico and south to the Gulf of California.

It has been recorded as an addendum to the Inland Mexican state of Hidalgo state. Cape Race, including Cape Brace, Cape Drake, and Cape Racer, to name just a few northeastern North American people, such as Cape Race, derived from its abundance around Newfoundland – in Europe it is Iceland, North Scotland, northwestern Ireland (just a few pairs are bred ), Wintering along the south coast as part of Scandinavia and northern Russia and Spain.

It is regularly seen along the Mediterranean, Aegean, and the Black Sea, as well as major inland waterways, including large rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. It has appeared as a fighter in the south to Morocco, Tunisia, and the Gambia.

In Asia, it breeds winter along the northern coast of Siberia and along the Pacific coast in the south of China, Japan, and Taiwan. It happened in Mongolia as a hoax.

Behavior

Among the loons, the red-throated loon is exceptional in its ability to pull away from very small water bodies.

Because its foot is so far back in its body, the red-throated loon is quite awkward to walk on the ground, but it can use it to push its foot forward toward its nipple.

Young people use this method of covering the land as they move from their breeding pools to larger waters, including rivers and seas. It is the only type of weed that is capable of descending directly from the ground.

If frightened, it can only sink until its head or bill is seen above the water’s surface.

The red-throated loon is the diurnal migrant, who travels alone or in loose groups, often above the water.

In eastern North America (and probably elsewhere), it tends to migrate not far to the coast; Siberian peoples travel hundreds of miles on their southern European winter route.

It was a strong-flying and kept trapping at speeds of 75 to 78 kilometers (47 and 48 miles) per hour. Like all members of his family, the red-throated loon simultaneously loses all its flight feathers and becomes unmanned for three to four weeks. Lost power

Food and feeding

Two small smoky black umbrellas – a silverfish swallowing a floating in the water next to a large bird with a black back and gray neck.

Once they are 3-4 days old, the infants are fed – which can be much larger than the size of a goat.

Like all family members, the red-throated loon is essentially a fish-eaten, though it sometimes feeds on mollusks, crustaceans, frogs, aquatic invertebrates, insects, fish spans, or plant material. [6] It detains its victim, who is usually caught underwater.

Although it is usually submerged and only swims using its legs for flow, it can also use its wings if it needs quick wings or acceleration. Pursuit dives have an average underwater time of about 2 minutes with a depth of 2-29 meters (6.6-229.5 feet).

Its fish diet increases the vulnerability of red-throated loons for continuous organic pollutants and heavy metals, both of which bioaccumulate, resulting in more problems with long-lived species (such as loons) at or near the top of the food chain.

Its main diet also names several British people in Lunn, including “Sprite Borer” and “Spratun.”

For the first few days after hatching, parents feed young red-throated loons to aquatic insects and small crustaceans. After 3-5 days, parents switch to small fish small enough to swallow whole birds.

At four weeks of age, children can eat the same foods as their parents. Young birds may be fed for some time after the escape.

Adults are found to have been feeding fish to adolescents on the sea and inland lakes in the UK several hundred kilometers away from any breeding ground.

Reproduction and survival

Little jerking black chick floats on calm water next to a large bird with rotten grass and tall grass in the background

The rats are suitable swimmers, able to accompany their parents with hatching.

Red-throated loons are the only species that form long-term pair bonds. Both sexes are nesting, which is placed within a shallow scrap (or occasionally mud and tree platform) lined with tree trunks and sometimes a few feathers, and half a meter (18 inches) at the edge of a small pond.

The female lays two eggs (though one and three eggs are recorded); They are infected primarily by the female for 24-29 days.

Eggs, which are stained with green or olive-brown color, measure 75 mm × 46 mm (3.0 at × 1.8 in) and have a mass of 83 g (2.9 oz), of which 8% is soldered.

It starts, so they hatch asynchronously. If a clutch is lost (for example or predicted) before the young hatch, the red-throated loon usually binds to a new nest. Young birds are precocious: after hatching, they remain low and mobile, with open eyes.

Both parents feed their small aquatic invertebrates early, then feed the small fish for 38-48 days. Babies will display distracting displays to tempt predators away from home. Orthopedics do not agree on whether adults keep their backs young while swimming and others do the opposite.

In the wild, the oldest known red-throated loon survived for more than two decades. It was found, oiled and dead, that it had been bandied about 23 years 7 months on a beach in Sweden.

Conservation status and threats

Although the red-throated loon is not a threatened species worldwide, because it has a large population and a significant range, there are populations that seem to be declining.

The numbers counted in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service survey of Alaska showed a 5% decline in population between 1971 and 1970, for example, in continental Europe, the survey count declined.

On the other hand, the population in Scotland increased by about 16% between 16 and 28, according to a study by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Scottish Naturalist.

In 2002, Wetlands International estimated a population of 490,000 to 1,500,000 individuals worldwide; The global population trends have not been quantified.