ML40542701

Age and sex

Adult, Unknown sex - X

Media notes

Very poor image but you can see the head facing to the left, still in breeding plumage and the pale bill simply disappearing against the pale water. You get a sense here of the way the bill was held upward.

Observation details

***MEGA. Adult in alternate (breeding) plumage. Very poor and distant video shot with iPhone through Kowa scope at 60x uploaded to Flickr following observation and into eBird/ML on 21 November 2016. We had been looking at several hundred loons in flight all morning (and yesterday morning). At 8:39am, I noticed a breeding plumage loon flying west. It was above the horizon against a bright background. The thing I first noticed about this bird was that it appeared to have no bill. Just a big black head with an angled forehead. I was thinking how odd it was, and couldn't ever think of seeing an all black-headed Common Loon without a mostly black bill and I couldn't understand why I couldn't see it. Even though I know YBLO has a pale bill that you could lose against the horizon, I couldn't really believe there was a Yellow-billed Loon in full breeding plumage. I kept watching the bird trying to figure out why I couldn't see a bill. Apparently I was mumbling to myself in a way that peaked Jessie's interest (Apparently when I mumble incoherently, she interprets this to mean I've found something "good"). Anyway, it dipped below horizon and came and landed on the water. At that point the water appeared deep blue and the pale yellow bill gleamed against the dark background and I yelled to Jessie that there was a "*$*@ breeding plumaged adult YELLOW-BILLED LOON". It landed within about 15 meters of a Common Loon (about 80% in breeding plumage). In direct comparison, the Yellow-billed Loon was slightly larger with the bill held more upward. The head appeared slightly more block with a flatter crown, and steeper forehead. The most obvious difference was the pale bill color with about an inch of dark on the top of the culmen extending from the forehead. The other thing that stood out was the much more extensive white appearance to the upperparts. This was noticeably and obviously different from any of the other Common Loons we had seen. We could not detect any difference in the white markings on the neck. We called Andy Guthrie, posted to Genesse Birds, and shortly after the bird flew off to the west. We watched the bird for a total of 6 minutes. This was only about the 7th breeding plumage Yellow-billed Loon I have seen (same for Jessie). It was completely unexpected on this date and location. I've seen perhaps 45 Yellow-billed Loons, mostly in Alaska and Colorado. Jessie has seen similar numbers, mostly in Washington and Alaska. This is the first either of us has seen in New York.

Technical information

Original file size

106.17 KB