#yellow-billed loon

[rafallerart]

Another round of watercolor bird studies, in preparation for a larger painting. These are all Arctic birds that can be found at/near the North Pole...so you can probably guess the theme of the bigger illustration I'm prepping for ;) Fingers crossed that it will be finished in time for the winter holidays!

[proton-wobbler]

Battle Royale

Pool Party! (E-5)

These birds are loosely grouped by their associations with water, and because I didn't want the family BR to get too big. Keep your eyes peeled- there may be someone here who got a little lost, but we don't discriminate here!

[deathsmallcaps]

My 44th Win A Commission story was the Tale of Lumaaq, or as it’s styled here, Lumaaq and Loon. If you’d like to see the rest of the pictures in context with the story, please

There once lived a blind boy, Lumaaq, with his very young half-sister and mother. Although blind, the boy was strong and could hunt and provided well for the family. Even so, the mother did not love the boy and treated him badly.

One day, in spring, when food was short and when the ice in the window was melted, a huge bear, smelling meat, attacked the ice hut. “Aaah,” shrieked the mother, thrusting the boy’s spear into his hands, “kill it, kill it.”

The boy did so and the bear fell to the ground with a terrific thud. “I got it!” he rejoiced.

“No!” yelled his mother, “You’ve shot the dog. You wicked boy – you shall be punished.”

And she grabbed him, pulled him far off to another snow house, and left him there. The hut was old and dirty, it was smelly and falling down; Lumaaq wanted to leave but could not find his way back.

He sat in the hut, thinking and thinking. “That was not our dog. The noise of it falling was too big and heavy for a dog. Why is she lying to me? Why has she left me in this horrible place?”

He felt very bewildered, very sad, very lonely and soon very hungry.

The mother and the sister skinned the bear and had a wonderful feast. But the sister loved her brother and was worried about him. The mother was busy preparing the rest of the bear meat for storage, so she slipped out and took some meat to her brother.

“I can’t stay,” said she, “or mother will miss me. But I will come when I can.” Her brother thanked her and hungrily bit the small portion of meat. He knew at once that his suspicions were true and that this was indeed bear meat. The weeks passed and the sister continued to smuggle food to her brother whenever she could.

Lumaaq heard the call of a loon and decided to find his way to the lake. He crawled on his hands and knees over the rough ground, feeling all about him until, eventually, his hands touched the softer earth of the lake’s edge.

Suddenly, he felt a soft peck at his hand and a voice said, “Why are you staring so with those strange eyes?” The boy lifted his hand and felt the feathers of a loon.

“I am blind,” he replied, “and cannot see the lake - only blackness. My mother hit my head too hard as a baby and so I was afflicted.”

One day, the boy heard the call of the yellow-billed loon and decided to find his way to it. The loon was so sympathetic that soon Lumaaq found himself telling all about his mother and how awful she was to him.

“We loons can see well,” said the bird. “Everyday we dive deep down into the lake. If you will trust me, I will take you deep down into the lake to wash away your blindness.”

The boy hesitated only a moment. “Yes please,” he replied, “What must I do?”

“You must hold onto me and make no movement until you are out of breath.” It grew in size, until it was larger than the boy.

Lumaaq clasped the loon firmly and the loon rose with the boy, flying out over to the middle of the lake.

Suddenly it turned into a steep dive and took the boy deep, deep into the waters.

When the boy could hold his breath no longer, the loon rose to the surface with him.

“What can you see?” asked the loon.

“I can see a greyness,” replied Lumaaq. The loon dived once more into the far depths of the lake and only surfaced when the boy had run out of air.

“What can you see?” asked the loon.

“I can see light and shadow,” replied the boy.

For the third time, the loon dived and surfaced.

“What can you see?” asked the loon.

“I can see mountains in the distance and clouds in the sky and huts way beyond the edges of the lake. Oh thank you, thank you. I never remembered the world was so beautiful.”

“Beware your mother,” warned the loon. “She will not be happy that you can see.”

Lumaaq made his way back to the dirty, ramshackle hut his mother had put him in and found it even more disgusting now that he could see. But hearkening to the words of the loon, he sat down amidst the filth.

Over the next few weeks, he did not tell anyone that he could see. Soon the food had run out, and his mother came for him. He heard her footsteps outside his hut.

“Get out here quickly,” she yelled. “We must go hunting."

Pretending to stumble and feel his way, Lumaaq followed her as she led him towards the sea.

“I will tie the harpoon line around my waist," she said. “That way I will be the brace and we can pull together to haul the whale to the shore."

She tied the line firmly around her middle. Lumaaq's heart sank. 'Would I ever be free,' he thought, 'to enjoy this beautiful world.' At least this time, as he could see, he would be sure to hit the whale and avoid punishment.

The boy stepped forward to the shore and threw the harpoon with all his strength towards the small whale but as he did so, the fluttering wings of a giant loon lifted the harpoon up over the little whale and into the side of the much bigger whale further out.

The huge whale began to thrash, and the whale pulled strongly towards the open sea. The mother found herself being dragged to water behind the angry, wounded whale.

The huge whale began to thrash, and the whale pulled strongly towards the open sea. The mother found herself being dragged to water behind the angry, wounded whale.

She screamed at Lumaaq, "You cannot hunt alone, you're blind, help me you fool, you need me." But a lifetime of cruelty had the boy stood still. From the shore he watched her being pulled further and further out to sea, until she was just a tiny dot on the horizon.

Lumaaq returned to his sister and to great celebrations. He became one of the greatest hunters that ever lived - a hunter that used not just his sight but all his senses.

As for the mother, it is said that, even today, fishermen still hear her cries over the water, as she is dragged around and around the oceans behind the white whale.

Art Explanation

Lumaaq & Loon Explanation

Lumaaq and Loon is an Inuit story from Puvirnituq, a village in Nunavuk, Canada. Meaning ‘Place where there is a smell of rotten meat’, Wikipedia lists two possible theories why it gained that name. One, that herd of caribou got caught up in a strong current upriver and washed upon the village’s shores, and they couldn’t process the bodies before rot set in. Two, an epidemic hit and people were so sick that the dead outnumbered the living. Honestly, given the details behind this story, I think it's the latter, but could even be both.

Traditionally, the Inuit had more fluid family dynamics than the idealized nuclear family of the modern United States. Survival of a family unit depended largely upon a two-parent household, but if a spouse disliked the other, they were allowed to separate - but not in divorce. While it was allowed, divorce was looked upon as a death sentence; both adults in a marriage provided important labor towards keeping food, getting materials, etc. So instead, couples would often switch spouses, and the children would generally stay in the same household.

Additionally, marriage wasn’t necessarily a commitment to your spouse (marriages were often arranged) but more like a commitment to raise children together. A lot of the time, nobody called such it a marriage until after the first child was born. And since it was less of a romantic pairing and more of a survival tactic, extramarital romantic relationships (and children) were not frowned upon, especially considering how long hunting trips could take. Occasionally, marriages between 3+ people would take place.

Put in the fact that if a family could not afford enough food to feed another kid, the kid was often adopted out, that makes this entire story very weird, and perhaps on a small scale, post apocalyptic. I’ve found two other versions of the story, one where the mom was a stepmom, and another where the mother intentionally blinded Lumaaq out of jealousy. But no matter the details, so many loose threads are left! Why is this youth providing for his family? Where is their dad? What happened to the rest of the village? Did the mom always hate Lumaaq, or was that just a manifestation of her guilt of blinding him? Was the little meat that the family owned the only draw for that bear? If this mother really did hate her son, why didn’t she try to find another family for him? I think it could all be answered by the reasons listed on Wikipedia - an epidemic.

If a disease killed his dad and a lot of the neighbors, it could’ve drastically changed the lives of Lumaaq and his family. And since Lumaaq was already blind, the mother might’ve been acting ruthlessly and looking to find someone on whom she could channel her misery. In any case, as ableist and thus disgusting as it may be, there’d be less questions from the community about your blind child mysteriously dying when they’re seriously afraid of starving. But I can’t ever be sure that this story is actually that deeply connected to the possible etymological history of Puvirnituq; maybe this little contextual tangent has been for naught. Nevertheless, it is interesting to consider!

Now, just one more “The curtains are blue” deep dive before I focus on describing the art: Lumaaq’s eyesight restoration. To some, this is a story that has been overtold; a disabled person must become abled in order to triumph. They want stories where disabled people can triumph while remaining disabled, or perhaps even using their disabilities to win! (Even before I knew I had ADHD, I loved the Percy Jackson series, where ADHD helped kids do better in fights!) However, other disabled people enjoy stories where their disability CAN go away. Some disabilities never go away, and will affect someone negatively for the rest of their lives. As such, it’s safe to say that this is a story where the protagonist did not keep his physical disability while triumphing over his problems. But to say that theme is all there is would do this story injustice.

I think Lumaaq’s sight restoration is not just physical, but emotional. Studies have shown that if you lose a sense (sight, hearing, etc.) before the age of 5, you might remember it, but no dreams will be had WITH that sense - thus, you will gain no new memories involving that sense. Lumaaq was blinded at infancy, and would have no memory of sight. And perhaps, if his mother mistreated him since that day, he also had no sense of self-worth. Throughout the story, Lumaaq notices the injustices his mother commits against him, and even questions her on it, but doesn’t fight back. He never really fights back directly. Even when he regains his sight, Lumaaq is unwilling to show his mother that he can now see. An outsider may think that decision odd, as it was supposedly the source of their strife, but to an abused person, it makes sense. A change in a victim can seem threatening to an abuser; a change that would make a victim stronger than the abuser would ‘need’ to be immediately quashed. The mother took away his sight once; who was to stop her from doing it again? So Lumaaq continued to stumble, and would have continued to hunt for food for his mother. That’s why he originally went for the smaller whale - he was sure they both could pull it in to harvest.

But the loon made sure that the harpoon pierced the big whale - one big enough to drag the mother away. And Lumaaq let her go. When push came to shove, Lumaaq was able to see that he was worth more than all her cruelty. That’s an invaluable realization for a victim of abuse to have; especially a child. While we don’t get a true epilogue, we do know that he went on to be a great hunter, so I’m glad that he was able to move on from that terrible situation.

Alrighty, I’ve rambled long enough. Onto the art!

The title was the first one in a long time that I actually felt inspired drawing. When I started out (Check K’s first volume, it's different from yours, M’s and O’s!) I drew titles more consistently, but also more connected to the story symbolically than they have been recently. Each was my own half-learned version of cursive, with an apple or a mermaid tail or whatever attached. But I soon became restless with that and tried exploring word art and including the setting’s language in the title. Eventually, I lost passion for it. This was just a brief anomaly I think. As I write this, I have exactly two stories left to draw a title for, and frankly, I’m a bit burned out for them. But I’m glad I did that loon & eye combination - I think it's marvellous.

The symbols underneath are the Inuktitut (language of the Inuit in that part of Canada) way of writing ‘Lumaaq’ and ‘Loon’; I wasn’t able to find a definite source on the word ‘and’, much less how to write its letters. Thus, the ampersand that I ended up including in both the English version and the romanized Inuktitut versions as well. By the way, Tuullik is the specific term for a yellow-billed loon.

The second picture was what I drew first. I put a lot of work in trying to figure out how to draw the dog restrained, the sister surprised, and the position of the bear, and how his head shape would look on the ground like that - to be honest I think I needed a bit more practice. The spear going through the eye, while to some it might seem to be a symbolic choice, was largely because of something I once read in the book, The Hunger Games. The main character, Katniss, is able to fetch high prices for her kills because she shoots animals through the eye, thus leaving an unmarred pelt and showcasing her skills as an archer. I wanted Lumaaq to be like that. I do think the mom dragging Lumaaq turned out well though.

Everything about their clothes should be accurate. While I rarely found a verifiable old picture that was definitely of a Nunavut Inuit person, I based all clothing and adornment off of real pictures. In fact, I might’ve drawn them too simply! More checkered patterns and decorative fur ruffs were often worn. Note that Lumaaq has no decoration at all, and that his parka is a bit too short. Piercings were common, as were different hairdos than what we’d expect today. The sister in the background has hair-loopies, which I borrowed from a character called Katara from a show called ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’. The mom’s wrapped braids were common - probably to keep hair clean and off the face. And Lumaaq’s bald-at-the-top hairdo is actually accurate. According to an essay by an actual Inupiaq person, as their hair is often round and stiff, and parka hoods are incredibly warm, it was less itchy and comfortable to shave off the top of the head for a lot of guys, instead of growing it out (thus flattening it) like ladies.

The third picture was one I looked most forward to drawing, because of the interesting angle and fantastical theme to it. I borrowed the idea ⤵, though I think I gave it my own spin :). https://www.recordonline.com/story/lifestyle/2010/08/23/tell-me-story-gift-loon/51500822007/

I made sure Lumaaq had no pupils to show that he wasn’t seeing yet.

Last was Lumaaq watching his mom get yanked off her feet, into the sea. He has his pupils, so he can see her get pulled out to sea. I’m pretty good at portraits, so I’ll admit this one was a bit of a breather for me. But I had fun doing it! Never realized narwhal tails were quite that pretty - check it out!

Sorry for the ramble - it definitely held more words than the actual story. But I hope you had fun with it :).

Here are the more sketchy versions because i love them too

[simplified-birds]

Simplfied bird #109 - yellow-billed loon

( requested by anon )

[animal-families-tournaments]

[nymbruyn]

Undying Tales 2 : il s'agit du plongeon à bec blanc. Inspiré d'une légende d'Amérique du Nord

Pentel et encres Jacques Herbin sur papier coloré. , format A5.

Disponibilité de l'original : ✅

Légende du plongeon à bec blanc :

🇺🇲 "The mournful and beautifully poignant cry of the loon can be heard skimming across the waters at dawn and dusk. The Tsimshian people who live in Canada and Alaska have a story of how the loon got its white necklace of feathers. Loon assisted a blind man, restoring his vision by taking him under his wing and swimming swiftly under the mirror clear waters of a lake. After several circuits of the lake, when Loon and the man emerged, his sight was restored. He gifted Loon his traditional Tsimshian necklace, and it melted across Loon’s neck to create the white pattern of feathers around the bird’s ruff."

[birdblues]

Yellow-billed Loon

[roadtrippinlilly]

Yellow Billed Loon

Lake Lawtonka, Oklahoma

Source Me laf@ilyF ❤

[whatsthebird]

What's the Bird?

Location: Talkeetna, Alaska

Date:

We ask that discussion under questions be limited to how you came to your conclusion, not what your conclusion was.

Happy Birding!

Keep the game alive! Submit a bird HERE

Bird-266 graciously submitted by @alaskannymph

[twocolorz]

Aight HC abt one of my fav jokers

The Ringmaster.

He barley sleeps

often fidgets with his tail when being stressed

He gets quick tempered especially when he hasn’t slept in a few days or hasn’t gotten his morning coffee lol

Bro cries everytime he looks at the electric, faygo and like anything relating to the carnival bills cuz I know that shit gotta be expensive with how the lights be runnin 24/7

He wears the most prettiest yellow robe, just slayin fr

He has a golden tooth (since he lost one from a fight)

His skin feels like wax and he has a hard time picking some stuff up cuz of his long ahh nails

He loves watching Garfield

He’s always running around the circus, pretty stressed and having to keep everyone on schedule.

He and milenko WERE together but their love died out due to lack of communication, this definitely doesn’t impact their future relationships. They’re still alright to eachother though, minus the fact the ringmaster doesn’t like being around milenko for long periods of time and milenko would sometimes flirt with bro dispute him being with RIDDLEBOX at the moment.

He uses like 6 blankets to sleep and four pillows to rest his head.

He had a pet loon he named “loon” not very creative with names rip.

Real talk tho if he gave you a hawk tuah your dingaling is gonna be a peeled carrot cuz of his sharp teeth 💀

His tail is bitten from a fight with someone who tried escaping the wax museum and he has mirror glasses.

[magnetothemagnificent]

My birding week vacation is over, so here are all the bird species I saw:

1. Little blue heron

2. Sharp-shinned hawk

3. Black vulture

4. Great egret

5. Sandhill crane

6. Mourning dove

7. Common loon (there were two of them just hanging out at a lake. We couldn't believe it but they were unmistakable)

8. Cattle egret

9. Great blue heron

10. Anhinga

11. Double-crested cormorant

12. Red-winged Blackbird

13. Limpkin

14. Wood stork

15. White ibis

16. Muskovy duck

17. Boat-tailed grackle

18. American crow

19. American coot

20. Common gallinule

21. Common grackle

22. Glossy ibis

23. Palm warbler

24. Osprey

25. American purple gallinule

26. Wood duck

27. Red-shouldered hawk

28. Pied-billed grebe

29. Royal tern

30. Eastern Phoebe

31. Roseate spoonbill (last year it eluded me, but this year I saw two at two separate locations!)

31. Black-bellied whistling duck

32. Tricolor heron

33. Northern harrier

34. Yellow-rumped warbler

35. Tree swallow

36. Swallow-tailed kite

37. Ring-billed gull

38. Turkey vulture

39. Mallard

40. White pelican (there were two just hanging out at an artificial lake in the middle of a residential area)

41. Red eyed vireo

42. Mulard

43. American pekin

44. Mallard/Pekin hybrid

45. Downy woodpecker

46. Grey catbird

47. Blue-grey gnatcatcher

48. Fish crow

49. Northern parula

50. Snowy egret

51. Chimney swift

52. Common yellowthroat

53. Bald eagle

54. Red-bellied woodpecker

55. Blue winged teal (we only saw these guys because we had to walk an extra 1.5 miles to take the long way back to the car because an alligator decided to block our short way back)

56. Great-crested flycatcher

57. Louisiana waterthrush

58. Laughing gull

59. Northern mockingbird

60. Mottled duck

61. Loggerhead shrike

62. White eyed vireo

63. Tufted titmouse

64. Northern cardinal

65. Black and white warbler

66. Ring-necked duck (I saw this lone duck from the car as we were driving past an artificial lake. From it's silhouette I could see it looked different from the other ducks common in the area, so we stopped the car literally on the side of the road so I could run out with my binoculars, and sure enough it was a new species to add to the list. And then when we came back a few days later, it was still there swimming around and diving, so I guess it lived around there.)

67. Carolina chickadee

68. Swamp sparrow

69. Ruby-crowned kinglet

70. Pileated woodpecker

71. Belted kingfisher (we visited the same place three times because my Grandpa saw kingfishers there a few times. It wasn't until the third and final time, while we were ready to give up and leave, that we saw it, perched on a sign post over the water)

72. House sparrow

73. Cooper's hawk

74. Carolina wren

75. White-throated sparrow

[deathsmallcaps]

Day 2 of my 44th Win A Commission Contest! If you guess what story this is from before I post the title, you get a commission! Click the link or check out the tag #wac for more details! :) This one ends on December 13th, 2022.

Hint: This loon (bird) is trying to return the sight of the boy.

[officialweezerelections]

THE FULL FUCKED UP BIRD BRACKET

All birds have been randomized, the seeds mean nothing. Yes pitohui is spelled incorrectly in the bracket image.

GROUP A

Andean Condor VS Loggerhead Shrike

Superb Lyrebird VS Emu

Greater Sage-Grouse VS Common Ostrich

Yellow-Billed Oxpecker VS American Woodcock

Bare-Throated Bellbird VS Giant Petrel

Greater Sooty Owl VS Vampire Ground Finch

Great Eared Nightjar VS Spur-Winged Goose

Common Cuckoo VS Tawny Frogmouth

GROUP B

Great Potoo VS Killdeer

Domestic Chicken VS Oilbird

Tufted Puffin VS Dalmatian Pelican

King Vulture VS Twelve-Wired Bird Of Paradise

Greater Superb Bird Of Paradise VS Perrito

Barn Owl VS Purple Gallinule

Bearded Vulture VS Secretary Bird

Long Wattled Umbrellabird VS Horned Screamer

GROUP C

Oriental Bay Owl VS Anhinga

Pennant Winged Nightjar VS Snowy Sheathbill

Red-Legged Seriema VS Marabou Stork

Argentavis VS Common Loon

Black Skimmer VS Luzon Bleeding-Heart

Southern Cassowary VS Flamingo (all species)

Green Heron VS Great Hornbill

African Jacana VS California Condor

GROUP D

Hamerkop VS Capuchinbird

Shoebill Stork VS American White Pelican

Roseate Spoonbill VS Hoatzin

Terror Bird VS Elephant Bird

Great Egret VS Magnificent Frigatebird

Guinean Cock-Of-The-Rock VS Hooded Pitohui

White-Throated Rail VS Spur-Winged Plover

White Bellbird VS Kiwi

Polls will be tagged with their BRACKET (example: #bracket a) and #tournament poll

MAY THE WORST BIRD WIN

[animal-families-tournaments]

About a day left to vote for your favourite loon!

Vote for your favourite member of the Gaviidae family here.

[haveyouseenthisbirdpoll]

List of Birds organized by Order + locations:

Accipitriformes:

Bearded vulture

Cooper's hawk

Osprey

Red-shouldered hawk

Steller's sea eagle

Anseriformes:

Bar-headed goose

Barnacle goose

Black swan

Common merganser

Red-breasted goose

Snow goose

Trumpeter swan

Apodiformes:

Common swift

Ruby-throated hummingbird

Bucerotiformes:

Eurasian hoopoe

Cariamiformes:

Red-legged seriema

Casuariiformes:

Emu

Southern cassowary

Cathartiformes:

Black vulture

Turkey vulture

Charadriiformes:

American oystercatcher

Atlantic puffin

Black-headed gull

Black skimmer

Black-tailed godwit

European herring gull

Killdeer

Northern lapwing

Ruddy turnstone

Ciconiiformes:

White stork

Columbiformes:

Common wood pigeon

Eurasian collared dove

Luzon bleeding-heart

Nicobar pigeon

Victoria crowned pigeon

Coraciiformes:

Blue-capped kingfisher

Common kingfisher

Cuculiformes:

Asian koel

Greater roadrunner

Yellow-billed cuckoo

Eurypygiformes:

Kagu

Falconiformes:

American kestrel

Common kestrel

Galliformes:

Palawan peacock-pheasant

Western capercaillie

Gaviiformes:

Common loon

Gruiformes:

American coot

Australasian swamphen/pūkeko

Blue crane

Common moorhen

Sandhill crane

Sora

Whooping crane

Passeriformes:

American bushtit

American robin

Australian raven

Baltimore oriole

Barn swallow

Black-billed magpie

Black-capped chickadee

Black-throated sparrow

Blue-headed vireo

Blue jay

Bluethroat

Brown thrasher

California towhee

Canada warbler

Canyon wren

Cedar waxwing

Common blackbird

Common chlorospingus

Common raven

Eastern wood pewee

Eurasian blue tit

Eurasian bullfinch

Eurasian golden oriole

Eurasian jay

Eurasian magpie

European robin

Goldcrest

Great-tailed grackle

Great tit

Hooded crow

House sparrow

Indigo bunting

Kirtland's warbler

LeConte's sparrow

Long-tailed tit

Mexican jay

Painted bunting

Phainopepla

Pine siskin

Pin-tailed whydah

Pinyon jay

Pygmy nuthatch

Red winged blackbird

Rook

Saltmarsh sparrow

Satin bowerbird

Spotted towhee

Steller's jay

Tufted titmouse

Wallcreeper

Warbling vireo

Western tanager

White-breasted nuthatch

White-throated dipper

White-throated magpie-jay

Yellow-rumped warbler

Pelecaniformes:

Brown pelican

Great blue heron

Great egret

Great white pelican

Least bittern

Roseate spoonbill

Shoebill stork

Snowy egret

Phoenicopteriformes:

American flamingo

Chilean flamingo

Piciformes:

Acorn woodpecker

Clark's nutcracker

Lewis's woodpecker

Northern flicker

Pileated woodpecker

Red-bellied woodpecker

Red-headed woodpecker

Podargiformes:

Tawny frogmouth

Podicipediformes:

Pied-billed grebe

Procellariiformes:

Wilson's storm-petrel

Psittaciformes:

Australian king parrot

Chestnut-fronted macaw

Citron-crested cockatoo

Cockatiel

Galah

Gang-gang cockatoo

Pacific parrotlet

Rose-ringed parakeet

Sulphur-crested cockatoo

Strigiformes:

Barn owl

Barred owl

Eurasian eagle-owl

Suliformes:

Anhinga

Blue-footed booby

Double-crested cormorant

Trogoniformes:

Elegant trogon

Locations:

Africa

America

Antarctica

Asia

Australia

Central America

Eurasia

Europe

North America

Oceania

South America

[angelfishcake]

Okay I'm genuinely curious. What's your favourite thing about loon birds? :)

Oh, I can't just pick one!

First, their call, the one that starts low, spikes up to a high note, then fades out. Genuinely haunting but oh so beautiful. The best part is that it's not even meant to be sad, it's a way to call out to other loons, "I'm here, where are you?" Like one big game of Marco Polo!

Second, their swimming ability. Their feet are situated on the sides of their body instead of directly under, the propellors of a boat, so their swimming far exceeds that of a duck or goose. (Unfortunately, that also means that their walking ability is nonexistent. They only choose to shuffle up on land for nesting purposes, which is brief. Mother Nature did 'em dirty 😔)

Third, their designs. All four species are rather similar (majority black feathers with white dots and white underbelly) with slight variation, which is self-evident in the names: Common loon, red-throated loon, yellow-billed loon, and black-throated loon. (I'm partial to the common loon, because of the neck band.) With the combo of black and white feathers, it makes their red eyes POP! So eye-catching, so distinctive, when you look at a loon, you know it's a loon.

Fourth, their name. Associated with a silly, perhaps crazy person, but done so in a leisurely manner, rarely an insult and more of a friendly remark.

And last but not least, like many other waterfowl, they carry around their babies on the water like this:

Thanks for the ask!