By Jake Bramante
In March 2025, Steve Gniadek posted a rare bird alert, complete with a photo: a Yellow-billed Loon. The largest of North America’s five loon species, with a mammoth, yellow bill while in breeding plumage, the Yellow-billed Loon is much more subdued in non-breeding plumage. With only about six birds found historically around the Flathead Valley, excitement around the sighting was high.
Common Loons are the most, well, common loons around here. They sport a jet-black head and red eyes; powerful
black, dagger-like bill; well-defined stripes down the neck; and a green, iridescent collar. Their black backs are
speckled with white in rows. Diving birds in tuxedoes!
Common Loons can be found in lakes all across North America. They winter primarily along the coasts, migrate across the continental US, and breed in the north, including in our backyard lakes, the only loon to do so. The smaller Pacific Loon
breeds across the Arctic and Subarctic tundra, usually migrates along the Pacific Coast, and overwinters along the Pacific Coast and in Mexican waters. There are occasional sightings of this small-billed loon every fall and winter in the Flathead. Steve Gniadek and Eric Godin spotted a pair in October 2025 on Bowman Lake.
There are only two historical records of the petite, slender Red-throated Loon in Flathead Valley (and a couple in Lake County). Yet Roy Morris spotted a Red-throated Loon towards the end of November in Wayfarer’s State Park, far from the traditional coastal migration routes for loons. Many local birders enjoyed its two-week visit.
That brought Flathead Valley’s loon count to four species for the year.
Then, on December 29th, Dan Casey spotted a potential Arctic Loon. Primarily a Eurasian loon with only a few Arctic Loons breeding on the Seward Peninsula in Alaska, there are occasional sightings along coastlines and no official sightings in Montana. Was this the first official sighting and the fifth loon species in one year?
The Pacific Loon and Arctic Loon can look very similar in both breeding and non-breeding plumages. The bird that Dan found had a small bill but appeared stouter than a Pacific. It also sported the forehead in various looks that a Pacific lacks. The white along the flanks also was not definitive.
After much discussion with experts in Arctic Loon habitats, the After much discussion with experts in Arctic Loon habitats, the bird was officially recorded as a Pacific Loon, to the chagrin of many. The search for Montana’s first Arctic will continue!
If you’re on the edge of a large, local, unfrozen body of water from October to March, keep an eye out for the classic loon shape of a waterbird with a pointed bill that sits low in the water. But don’t just think it’s a “Common” Loon. It might be an exceptional one.