How to tell apart loons

Common Loons have thick bills that is
parallel to the water. This one is beginning to get its spots back
for the upcoming breeding season

I don't think you need to be a birder to appreciate loons. Many of us have memories as kids hearing them up in the north woods of Maine. Even people that have never seen one have certainly heard their eerie call in many a horror movie. When most people think of the loons they've seen on summer vacations, they picture the beautiful black bird with white spots.

In the winter loons loose that summer plumage and are dressed in a much less colorful grey. There are two types of loons that are commonly found off the cost of New England in the winter. The Common loon is the one that we know from north lakes and ponds. The other is the Red Throated Loon. The Red Throated spends it summers from Labrador north to the Arctic. We are "south" to them. To make identification difficult, like the Common Loon's spots, the Red Throated looses the bright red throat in the winter and is pretty much all grey.  They are both commonly found wintering in the ocean within close view of the shoreline.

Not to fear, they are pretty easy to tell apart. The Common Loon has a much thicker bill. The Red Throated Bill is much more dainty. It is thin like a nail. The Common Loon's bill looks heavy and broad. Another way to tell them apart is how they keep their bill while swimming.

Notice the much thinner bill of the
Red Throated Loon. It swims with the bill slightly
tilted up although this picture does not really show that.

A Common Loon will swim with it's bill completely parallel to the water.  A Red Throated swims with its bill slightly tilted up toward the sky. You really can't miss it if you look for it. It swims with the bill up at roughly a 40 degree angle to the water. I really didn't get any good pictures of this because the Red Throated close to shore was actively feeding and not really swimming around. It would pop up, catch its breath and dive again.

The best places in Rhode Island to see Loons-

Common Loons are everywhere in the winter along the oceanfront and in salt ponds. The two places with the largest concentrations that I know of are Weekapaug Breachway and inside the Galilee Channel. At Weekapaug, they are relatively close because the channel is not that wide. This makes them easy targets for pictures. I park in the Breachway parking lot and walk back north over the bridge for five minutes. There seems to be a lot in that direction.

The Jerusalem State Pier in East Matunuck  is an easy place to see loons. There have been quite a few in the pond this year. They may not be as close, but there should be plenty within easy binocular range

Red Throated Loons

Red Throated aren't as common of a winter resident. They can be just about anywhere. However the place I have had the most consistent luck seeing them is from Moonstone Beach