The Common Loon
Visiting Loons
The Common Loon
Loons are swimming and diving birds with very distinctive long and low-slung bodies, spear-like beaks, and blood-red eyes. Loons have an eerie, haunting call that sometimes can be heard in early spring or fall mornings as they migrate through our area.
Visiting Loons
Loons visit us here at Yankee Lake on their April and October/November migrations. Being with us only for a few days, it is magical to hear the haunting call of the loon drift out over our waters. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with this fascinating bird.
Listen to a 25-second audio clip of calling loons:
- Diet: Carnivore
- Average life span in the wild: 30 years
- Size: 2 to 3 feet
- Weight: 6½ to 12 pounds
- Groups of Loons are called “Flocks.”
- Loons can dive more than 200 feet below the surface of the water in search of food.
- Loons were an “Endangered Species” in Vermont until 2005.
The Call of the Loon
A YouTube Video
Learn More About Loons
- All About the Common Loon
- Vermont Loons (Downloads a zip-compressed PDF)