Editing Common loon (section)

==Distribution and habitat==
Common loons are mainly [[Nearctic realm|Nearctic]], and breed from [[49th parallel north|48° N]] to the [[Arctic Circle]], locally south to [[40th parallel north|40° N]] and north to [[78th parallel north|78° N]].<ref name="hbw2" /> During their breeding season in spring and summer, most common loons live on lakes and other waterways in the northern United States and Canada, as well as in southern parts of [[Greenland]],<ref name=bwp/> in Iceland, in [[Svalbard]], in [[Jan Mayen]], and in [[Bear Island (Norway)|Bear Island]] in Norway; and in [[Alaska]], to the west, and very rarely in [[Scotland]], to the east.<ref name="hbw2" /> Their summer habitat ranges from wooded lakes to [[tundra]] ponds. The lakes must be large enough for flight take-off, and provide a large population of small fish.<ref name=bwp>{{cite book | editor1-last = Snow | editor1-first = David |editor2-last=Perrins|editor2-first=Christopher M.| title = The Birds of the Western Palearctic (BWP) concise edition (2 volumes) | publisher=Oxford University Press |year = 1998| location=Oxford | isbn= 978-0-19-854099-1 |pages=8–10| title-link = The Birds of the Western Palearctic }}</ref> Deep lakes with warm surface waters, relatively low biological productivity and low turbidity where their fish prey are easy to see are habitats where breeding loons are more successful in raising young.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Thompson |first1=Stephanie A.|last2=Price|first2=J. Jordan|date=2006|title=Water clarity and diving behavior in wintering common loons | jstor=4132565 | journal=Waterbirds | volume=29 | issue=2 | pages=169–175 | doi=10.1675/1524-4695(2006)29[169:wcadbi]2.0.co;2 |s2cid=86267739 }}</ref> For protection from [[Predation|predators]], common loons favour lakes with [[island]]s and [[cove]]s.<ref name=":2">{{cite web|url=https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Loon/id|title=All About Birds: Common Loon|publisher=Cornell Lab of Ornithology|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525200226/https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Loon/lifehistory|archive-date=25 May 2017|access-date=6 August 2017}}</ref> They are rare visitors to the [[Arctic Ocean|Arctic]] coast.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: final comprehensive conservation plan, environmental impact statement, wilderness review, and wild river plans|date=1988|publisher=United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Region 7|page=450}}</ref> They are known to exhibit high breeding site fidelity.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1=Paruk|first1=James D|last2=Chickering|first2=Michael D.|last3=Long|first3=Darwin|last4=Uher-Koch|first4=Hannah |last5=East|first5=Andrew |last6=Poleschook|first6=Daniel|last7=Gumm|first7=Virginia|last8=Hanson|first8=William|last9=Adams|first9=Evan M.|date=2015|title=Winter site fidelity and winter movements in common loons (''Gavia immer'') across North America |journal=The Condor | volume=117|issue=4|pages=485–493|doi=10.1650/CONDOR-15-6.1 | doi-access=free }}</ref>
[[File:Gavia immer (Common Loon) Portrait-1APR2017.jpg|alt=Common Loon|thumb|In [[Bodega Bay, California]]]]
Some common loons remain in Iceland year-round, although most migrate. In North America, they winter mainly along north Atlantic and north-east Pacific coasts, many stopping off on the [[Great Lakes]] during their [[Bird migration|migration]].<ref name="hbw2" /> They migrate in the day, starting about two hours after sunrise and flying at altitudes of 1500 to 2700 m above sea level, above the convective and turbulent layer of air.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=The Condor| volume=84| pages=97–100| title=The migration of common loons through eastern New York| author=Kerlinger, Paul| year=1982 | url=https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/condor/v084n01/p0097-p0100.pdf|issue=1| doi=10.2307/1367828| jstor=1367828}}</ref> In winter they can be seen on North America coasts as far south as [[Baja California Peninsula|Baja California]], [[Sonora]], northern [[Sinaloa]], southern [[Texas]], and rarely northern [[Tamaulipas]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Birds of Texas: A Field Guide|last1=Rappole|first1=John H|last2=Blacklock|first2=Gene W.| date=1994| location=College Station, TX | publisher=Texas A&M University Press| isbn=978-0-89096-545-0| page=14}}</ref><ref name=":3" /> In the east, several thousand winter along western European coasts, probably originating from Iceland, Greenland, and Canada.<ref name="hbw2" /> Their range extends into northwestern [[Europe]] from Finland to Portugal and southern and northwestern Spain ([[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]] and [[Asturias]]), as well as the western [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] off [[Catalonia]], and off Morocco in [[Africa]], although only a few hundred travel as far south as [[Iberian Peninsula|Iberia]].<ref name="iucn status 19 November 2021" /><ref name="hbw2" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=A Field Guide to Mexican Birds: Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador|last1=Peterson|first1=Roger Tory|last2=Chalif|first2=Edward L.|date=1999|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-0-395-97514-5|location=Boston, MA|page=[https://archive.org/details/fieldguidetomexi00edwa/page/3 3]|url=https://archive.org/details/fieldguidetomexi00edwa/page/3}}</ref> Although wintering site fidelity is not well known, annually, adults are observed to return to the same wintering locations in the Pacific Ocean ([[Morro Bay, California|Morro Bay]]), the Gulf of Mexico ([[Barataria Bay]]), the Atlantic Ocean ([[Maryland]] and [[Massachusetts]]), and the reservoir [[Lake Pateros]].<ref name=":0" />

They usually winter along coasts and on inland lakes, bays, inlets, and streams,<ref name=bwp /> with birds migrating to the nearest body of water that will not freeze over in the winter: western Canadian loons go to the [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]], [[Great Lakes]] loons to the Gulf of Mexico region, eastern Canadian loons to the Atlantic, and some loons to large inland lakes and [[reservoir]]s.<ref name=":2" /> They appear in most of the inland waters of the United States. The [[South Carolina]] coast, the Gulf coast adjacent to the [[Florida Panhandle|Florida panhandle]], and the Atlantic seaboard from [[Massachusetts]] to [[Maine]] have some of the highest concentrations of common loons.<ref name=":102">{{Cite book|title=White River National Forest (N.F.), Land and Resource Management Plan: Environmental Impact Statement |last1=Garfield |first1=Eagle|last2=Mesa|first2=Gunnison|last3=Pitkin|first3=Moffat|last4=Routt|first4=Rio Blanco|last5=Colorado|first5=Summit Counties|publisher=United States Forest Service|year=2002|pages=62}}</ref> Occasional vagrants are recorded inland in Mexico, in [[San Luis Potosí]] and [[Coahuila]], as well as in [[Chiapas]] and [[Oaxaca]] in the south. They are accidental in northern Japan and the [[Commander Islands]] in northwestern Pacific, and Cuba in the [[West Indies]].<ref name="hbw2" />