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Gavia adamsii L 34" (86 cm).
Song or calls: Utters wild, ringing laugh like common loon but harsher. Yodels like a common loon.
Description: Sexes similar. Winter birds white below with brown above, including stripe up hindneck through crown. Side of neck buff-brown, with light around eye and variable dark spot behind eye. Dusky yellow bill, slightly uptilted. Juvenile similar to winter adult, but paler.
- Habitat: Large lakes and reservoirs. Coastal migrants; very rare inland.
- Where in Nebraska: Rare casual fall visitor and accidental in summer. Most likely found at large reservoirs in late fall or early winter.
- Field Notes: One of best known birds in legends and folklore of Eskimos, known as a weather prophet.
- Fun Facts: A group of loons has many collective nouns, including an "asylum", "cry", "loomery", "raft", and "water dance" of loons.
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