Common loon: Where It Lives, Map & Facts

Where the common loon lives – recorded in 22 countries, with quick facts from Wikidata and an introduction from Wikipedia.

Scientific name	Gavia immer
Group	Seabirds, divers & grebes
Status	Least concern (Wikidata, IUCN category label)
Found in	22 countries
Continents	Europe, North America
Mass	5.46 kg (male organism, adult weight); 4.5 kg (female organism, adult weight)
Class	Bird
Order	Gaviiformes
Family	Gaviidae

Where does the common loon live?

Open-licence (CC0 / CC BY) wild records published on GBIF place the common loon in 22 countries and territories across Europe and North America. Wikidata gives its range as: Africa. In Belgium it is listed as introduced (GRIIS checklists via GBIF).

Countries with at least a handful of records (a minimum share of the species’ records, to leave out vagrants and escapes). Records with coordinates only; captive and fossil records excluded.

How big is a common loon?

Wikidata records the following for the common loon: mass 5.46 kg (male organism, adult weight); 4.5 kg (female organism, adult weight).

Is the common loon endangered?

The common loon’s conservation status recorded in Wikidata is “Least concern” (an IUCN Red List category label). Source: Wikidata.

What kind of animal is the common loon?

The common loon (Gavia immer) is a bird in the order Gaviiformes and the family Gaviidae, genus Gavia. (Taxonomy from Wikidata.)

About the common loon

The common loon or great northern diver (Gavia immer) is a large member of the loon, or diver, family of birds. Breeding adults have a plumage that includes a broad black head and neck with a greenish, purplish, or bluish sheen, blackish or blackish-grey upperparts, and pure white underparts except some black on the undertail coverts and vent. Non-breeding adults are brownish with a dark neck and head marked with dark grey-brown. Their upperparts are dark brownish-grey with an unclear pattern of squares on the shoulders, and the underparts, lower face, chin, and throat are whitish. The sexes look alike, though males are significantly heavier than females. During the breeding season, loons live on lakes and other waterways in Canada, the northern United States (including Alaska), and southern parts of Greenland and Iceland. Small numbers breed on Svalbard and sporadically elsewhere in Arctic Eurasia. Common loons winter on both coasts of North America as far north as Newfoundland and Alaska, and as far south as Mexico, as well as on the Atlantic coast of Europe.

Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Common loon (revision 1379678186), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: lead section excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Quick facts, taxonomy and status: Wikidata Q190342 (CC0). Countries and pin: GBIF.org occurrence records (CC0 / CC BY 4.0).