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Common Loon juvenile

Gavia immer

Photo by FianaShapiro
Published on Project Noah
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26.1118, -97.1681

Field Notes

Description:

So I'm labeling it as a young common loon, as it looks a lot like a picture of one online (see resource below). Hopefully that's right.

This bird was sick, appearing to have ingested one of the many tarballs that littered the beach.

Habitat:

South Padre Island beach, at the Gulf of Mexico on the southern tip of Texas

Notes:

I brought the bird to the zoo in Brownsville to be checked out. I hope it wound up alright.

Reference Links:

common loon range - mendem10 - Zimbio

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (8)
FianaShapiro
you mean "can't" be a gannet? and yes, that picture looks very similar to the one I saw. I think I glanced at that one earlier in google images and thought since the beak looks shorter it wasn't it, but otherwise it's so close. I guess I'll label it as such. thanks.
ClementDufour
check this guy out, its a juvenile common loon: http://www.zimbio.com/member/mendem10/articles/retJBXrw9fv/common+loon+range Also, it can be a gannet, gannets are similar to the masked booby you posted. the bill is connected to the eye.
FianaShapiro
hmmm.. It does look like a common loon, but the beak looks long compared to pictures I looked up. I had been told by a friend it was a juvenile gannet, so I was starting to lean toward Northern gannet juvenile...
FianaShapiro
Well I was working, so it was done as part of my job (though my job was actually to take care of injured sea turtles, not birds), and it was actually one of my coworkers who found it and called me over to take it in.
Ava T-B
How wonderful of you to take it to the zoo for care. Whatever it is, it's a juvenile.

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PublishedNovember 13, 2011

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