Today we took a long ride to find a Pacific Loon. This loon had a known location, and it was hanging out with a few common loons, at the Tempe Town Lake. The Pacific Loon is considered a Rare Bird for the Tempe area.
One of the most important things when out birding is to remember there can be subtle differences between similar birds. The Pacific loon that we were in search of today, wasn’t very cooperative when we first found it. It was constantly diving and making it really difficult to get a solid ID, but after locating some Common Loons that were close by, it was easy to determine that the Pacific Loon, we located, that was out had a smaller beak, rounder head, and was smaller in size than the Common Loon. This time of year the birds are in their winter plumage, so there’s no bright colors or distinguishing marks in the feather pattern, that allow you to determine it is definitely a Pacific versus a Common Loon. You have to look for all the little subtle differences.anAnd sometimes when your birds far out in the water, it’s difficult to determine those little nuances necessary for a positive identification. Fortunately we had common loons that were close by, which facilitated a great comparison to assist us. Today turned out to be a good day, as we added a new bird pacific to our bird list, the Pacific Loon.
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