The Common Loon is quite lovely to look at; one of the most geographically dispersed water birds. The loon's black and white markings, especially the black head and checker-board back, makes it easy to spot on lakes or coastal estuaries from the width of Canada to the northern United States. But, lovely as they are to watch, loons are best known for the eerie cry of the male. Loons are, however, declining rapidly. They have ceased to appear at all at lakes where they have been breeding for hundreds of years; we are not sure, exactly what has caused this decline. There are a number of possibilities, ranging from climate change, to pollution to over industrialization of the fresh water lakes where loons breed. A known major cause is lead poisoning, from lead shot that loons ingest from the bottom of lakes, and lead fish lures that they swallow in error.

Despite better than 25 years of study and research, there's still a lot we don't understand about loons. We don't really understand what triggers their rather complex molt sequence, their wintering locations don't seem to assignable to breeding populations as a predictive group, nor do we really understand where the juvenile loons mature before their return to their breeding grounds, or what they do between leaving and returning. We do know that they are both territorial and invasive; unattached loons frequently "poach" and take over a likely breeding ground.

The Biodiversity Organization is on of the groups studying loons, and providing research support to ornithologists for loon studies. You can help by adopting a loon.