Hi there,

Yesterday afternoon (Dec 10th), I saw a weird Pacific Loon in Britannia Beach,
Howe Sound, 40 km north of Vancouver, just ahead of the car park in front of
the Mining Museum.

The first weird thing about it is that it seems to be still moulting.

The back was already moulted, speckled with lighter zones.
Though the light was not very good, I was able to see:
- the white breast,
- the dark throat (I was unable to see an iridescence there),
- the vertical stripes on the sides of the neck (covering a large part of
the neck, unlike other species of loons).
Unfortunately, I can't remember the colour of the bill.

These characteristics are, I think, enough to tell this bird as a Pacific Loon
(Gavia pacifica).

My first question will be : "is it normal to see a Pacific Loon with a breeding
plumage on Dec 10th ?"

I didn't mention all the characteristics of the bird, though, for there is
still a lot of fun to come :-)

- the "cheeks" were grayish, rather than almost black in the breeding plumage.
- the crown and the back of the neck were PALE YELLOW on almost half the part
that is normally gray in the breeding plumage !

My second question is thus: "what's wrong with this bird ? Does this
decolouring happen from time to time in the Pacific Loon?"

Thanks in advance


--
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A bird in the bush is better than two in the hand.

Serge Le Huitouze School of Computing Science
email: serge at cs.sfu.ca Simon Fraser University
tel: (604) 291-5423 Burnaby, British Columbia
fax: (604) 291-3045 V5A 1S6 Canada