COMMON LOON(Gavia immer)
The loon's loud cry is one of the most haunting sounds in the lonely northern lakes where it feeds and breeds. It has a long, sharp beak and handsome black and white breeding plumage. Loons are expert swimmers and fast fliers, but their legs are set so far back that they have difficulty moving on land. They spend the spring and summer on rivers and lakes, but after raising a pair of chicks, they usually head for the coast for the winter months.
During the breeding season, this grebe's feathery crest makes it one of the most elegant birds on the water. It shows off the crest during its courtship displays, then molts it once the breeding season is over. Grebes are not deep divers, but they are very agile. Their toes have individual webbing, and if danger threatens, they can sink like submarines until only the tops of their heads are visible above the water. Great crested grebes usually raise three or four chicks a year. The chicks often ride on their parents backs, held underneath their wings, and they stay on board even during a dive.
This small, pale brown grebe is named for the black ring around its beak, which appears just before the breeding season begins. Compared to the great crested grebe, it has a stocky body and a short neck. It feeds on freshwater insects and snails as well as fish. It builds its nest in typical grebe fashion, by heaping water plants into a soggy, floating pile.
The southern giant petrel is a scavenger, feeding on the shore as well as out at sea. It looks like a heavy brown seagull, with a powerful, hooked beak, which it uses to tear open dead animalas and to carry off seabird chicks. Its nostrils form two tubes along the top of its beak, a feature all petrels and their relatives share. Giant petrels nest on the ground. If anything comes to close, they can defend themselves by spitting a foul-smelling oil.
Holding out its wings stiffly from its sides, the fulmar rides the wind over rocks and waves, soaring and swooping with amazing agility. This gray and white bird nests on cliffs, where it lays its eggs on rocky ledges. The adults feed their chicks on regurgitated, half-digested food. They often follow fishing-boats to eat waste thrown overboard, and the species has become common because modern boats produce a lot of waste.
Shearwaters roam the open oceans, skimming over the waves as they search for food. They are common all over the world, but they often go unnoticed-partly because they come ashore only at night. They nest in burrows on rocky islands, laying just one egg each time they breed. Shearwaters are great travelers, and the short-tailed shearwater flies farther than any other bird on its annual migration. It breeds on islands near Tasmania, and each year the adults fly a figure eight loop around the whole Pacific Ocean-a distance of about 20,000 miles.
This giant seabird has the largest wingspan of any flying animal-up to 12 feet. Its wings are long and narrow, and it uses them to glide on storm-force winds in the southern oceans, snatching jellyfish and other animals from the waves. Its flight is so efficient that it rarely has to beat its wings. Wandering albatrosses nest on remote islands, laying a single egg each time they breed. Their eggs are the largest of any seabird and take more than 80 days to hatch. This is the longest incubation period of any bird. Wandering albatrosses take a long time to mature and are almost a year old before they are ready to fly.
This pelican has a wingspan of up to 10 feet, making it one of the world's largest freshwater birds. It is a powerful and skillful flier, but it is even more impressive when it sets out to catch a meal. Great white pelicans live and feed in flocks. They form circles around schools of fish and drive them together to make them easier to catch. Each pelican lunges after its food, filling its pouch with up to 4 gallons of water. Once the water has drained from its beak, the pelican swallows its prey.
Instead of scooping the water for food, brown pelicans act more like low-level dive-bombers. They cruise along in long lines close to the shore, watching for fish below. If they spot a school, the lead bird swoops up and then dives, and all others follow suit. Within seconds, the pelicans are bobbing back up to the surface of the sea, usually with fish in their pouches. Brown pelicans nest on rocky ground or in low trees, and they lay two or three eggs.
Gannets and boobies are the bird world's record high-divers. They dive at fish from a height of 100 feet or more, folding back their narrow wings just before they slice through the surface of the sea. A streamlined shape, strong skull, and air pockets under the skin, allows them to hit the water at great speed. Northern gannets nest on rocky islands in the northern Atlantic Ocean. Young birds are speckled brown, but after four or five years, they develop their adult plumage, with white bodies and black wing tips.
This close relative of the northern gannet has a gray beak, brown wings, and bright blue, webbed feet. Like the gannet, it catches fish by plunge-diving, though the booby often dives at a more gentle angle. Its close-set eyes enable it to look directly ahead as it drops toward the water. Blue-footed boobies are experts at catching flying fish disturbed by boats.
Tropicbirds often wander far out to sea, soaring and flapping their way across hundreds of miles of open water. They usually hover for a few seconds before diving into the water for fish and squid to eat. There are three species of these birds, all of which are mainly white, with two long tail feathers that look like streamers. The red-billed tropicbird is the largest of the three. It nests on rocky coasts and remote islands and raises a single chick each year.
Darters are sleek relatives of cormorants that live in lakes and swamps. They often swim with most of their bodies submerged, leaving just their heads and necks above the surface. Their beaks are straight and sharp-unlike the cormorant's, which is hooked-and they use them to impale fish under water. Once a darter has made a catch, it surfaces, flicks its prey into the air, and swallows it headfirst. Darters nest in trees, and their young can swim before they can fly.
Cormorants are fish-eating birds that chase their prey under water. They propel themselves mainly with their feet and can dive for more than a minute, reaching a depth of about 33 feet. Unlike most waterbirds, cormorants' feathers are not completely waterproof, so they hold their wings out to dry when they return to land. There are about 30 species of cormorants, and the great cormorant is by far the most widespread. It lives in lakes and estuaries as well as on coasts, building its nest on cliffs or in trees. Apart from its white throat it is almost entirely black.
Frigatebirds' wingspan can exceed 6 feet, but their skeletons can weigh as little as 4 oz.-less than the weight of their feathers. This amazing combination of size and lightness enables them to soar effortlessly over the ocean, where they keep a watchful eye on other birds. If a frigatebird sees another bird catching a fish, it immediately sets off in pursuit. It snaps at the bird until it drops its catch, then deftly catches the food before it hits the water. Frigatebirds nest in trees and shrubs. The males attract females by inflating throat pouches that look like red ballons. They rarely land on water.
This is the largest heron in Europe, with a wingspan of up to 5.5 ft. It catches fish by stealth, wading into shallows and then waiting for its prey to swim within reach. When a fish comes close enough, the heron flicks its neck and impales the fish on the end of its long, pointed beak. Like other herons, this bird folds its neck into an S shape when it flies and rests. It nests in groups, usually high in trees. Males and females greet each other by making loud, clattering sounds with their bills.
When most birds are settling down for the night, this small heron comes out to feed. Compared to some of its relatives, it looks short and squat, but it is just as effective at finding food. Night-herons patrol the water's edge, watching for fish and other small animals. They nest in trees and bushes, making flimsy platforms out of sticks.
Bitterns live in reedbeds, where their brown plumage blends in against the dead reed stalks. When threatened, they stretch out their necks and sway like reeds blowing in the wind. In the breeding season, male Eurasian bitterns make booming calls that sound like someone blowing across an empty bottle. They can be heard up to 3 mi. away.
This large, migratory bird is sometimes thought of as a symbol of good luck. In northern Europe, it often nests on rooftops. It feeds in fields and open places, where the ground is damp and full of animal life. Changing farming methods have made this kind of ground hard to find, so white storks are not as common as they once were. In the fall, European white storks fly south to Africa. They return in spring, often to thwe same nest they left six months earlier.
This huge, bald-headed bird is a stork that behaves like a vulture. It has larger wings than almost any other land bird, and it soars over the African plains looking for dead remains and edible waste. It is majestic in the air, but on the ground, its hunched body, pink head, and fleshy pouch give it an ugly look. The pouch hangs from its neck and is probably used in courtship.
This bird is one of nature's most breathtaking color schemes-an intense, all-over scarlet. It lives along muddy coasts and in mangrove swamps, and feeds and nests in groups. Scarlet ibises eat small mollusks and crustaceans, feeling for them in the mud with their curved beaks.
It is easy to see how this bird got its name. Its beak has a rounded tip, making it look like a spoon. As it wades through lakes or lagoons, the spoonbill dips its beak beneath the surface of the water and sweeps its head from side to side. Its sensitive beak snaps shut instantly if it touches anything that might be food.
Flamingos are the only birds that filter-feed, a method of eating also used by many whales. Flamingos dip their beaks in the water and collect tiny plants and animals by pumping water through slits on their beaks and tongues. There are five species of flamingos, and this is the most common. It feeds in shallow lakes, sometimes in flocks of more than a million.
This Australian bird is the world's only all-black swan, although it does have white wing tips. It lives on large, shallow lakes and mudflats and is highly sociable, often gathering in flocks thousands strong. Black swans nest near the water's edge or on small islands. The parent birds are careful to nest just beyond pecking distance of their neighbors. Black swans were introduced into New Zealand in the 1860s, where they are now widespread.
This elegant, all-white bird originally comes from the lakes of central Asia, but it is now common on parkland lakes all over the world. It uses its long neck to reach water plants, mollusks, and other bottom-living animals, often tipping up on end as it feeds. Its young, called cygnets, are gray-brown when they hatch. It takes them nearly a year to turn white. Mute swans fly well, but they need a long running start to take off. They usually come in to land on water, using their large, black feet as brakes.
**All Facts and Information contained in this website can be found in the following reference materials: The Kingfisher Illustrated Animal Encyclopedia and The Complete Book of Animals from The American Education Publishers
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GREAT CRESTED GREBE
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