Black-throated Diver

Black-throated Diver, known in North America as Arctic Loon (Gavia arctica), is a medium-sized member of the loon or diver family.

It breeds in Eurasia and occasionally in western Alaska. It winters at sea or on large lakes over a much wider range.

Breeding adults are 63 cm to 75 cm in length with a 100 cm to 122 cm wingspan. They are like a smaller, sleeker version of the Great Northern Diver. They have a grey head, black throat, white underparts and chequered black-and-white mantle. Non-breeding plumage is drabber with the chin and foreneck white. Its bill is grey or whitish and dagger-shaped. In all plumages a white flank patch distinguishes this species from all other divers including the otherwise almost identical Pacific Diver.

This species, like all divers, is a specialist fish-eater, catching its prey underwater. It flies with neck outstretched.

The call is a yodelling high-pitched wail.