Introduction

The Common Loon is surrounded by an aura of myth and magic. Among a wealth of Native American tales, a loon created the world in a Chippewa story; a Micmac saga describes Kwee-moo, the loon who was a special messenger of Glooscap, the tribal hero; and the tale of the loon’s necklace was handed down in many versions among Pacific Coast peoples. The loon’s voice is its most recognizable characteristic. The Yodel, its territorial call, given only by the male, is called the “song of the loon.”

Perhaps no species has aroused such extensive public concern over its declining populations and the environmental factors that threaten them. The rally of support groups, the initiation of volunteer protectionists known as Loon Rangers, annual censuses initiated and organized by loon lovers, and persistent public education efforts turned the tide for populations in the northeastern United States, became role models for conservation movements from Alaska to Iceland, and fostered a unifying North American loon program, the North American Loon Fund.

Much has been learned about this loon through research during the last 25 years. Nevertheless, its molt sequence remains incompletely understood, most wintering locales cannot be assigned to breeding populations, wintering ecology has been little studied, the movements of young before their initial return to the breeding grounds are still unclear, and synergistic effects of heavy-metal accumulations remain speculative.