BioDiversity Research Institute

Diana Solovyova and her dog, Joy

     The Yellow-billed Loon is the tenth rarest breeding bird in the United States. In Russia, it is listed as a red book species.

On the Trail of the Yellow-billed Loon

Under consideration for federal listing as an endangered species in the U.S., the yellow-billed loon (Gavia adamsii) has largely eluded understanding by the scientific community. Most fieldwork involving the capture of loons occurs in the dark of night using a combination of playback recordings and spotlights.   However, when the yellow-billed loon breeds - in the Arctic tundra of Alaska, Canada, Russia and rarely parts of Norway and Finland - the sun never sets.  BRI researchers led by Chris DeSorbo spent three years perfecting a technique for capturing loons in daylight. This summer BRI is ready to use this technique in Alaska to further understanding of this bird at risk.

BRI will also reach across the Bering Sea to support fieldwork in the Chukotka region of Russia where the yellow-billed loon is listed as a red book species and where little if any research is being conducted on the species. Diana Solovyova of the Institute for Sustainable Use of Natural Resources in Vladivostok, Russia, will travel to the Rauchua River watershed in western-most Chukotka to conduct YBLO surveys. She will be the second-ever ornithologist to visit the area; the first was in 1988.

Current Threats

Due in part to the challenge of capturing the yellow-billed loon, little scientific information is available on its lifespan and survivorship. We know that direct threats to its habitat exist from the exploration and development of oil and gas reserves, but we don’t know how exposure to contaminants, in particular to mercury (Hg), may also be affecting the survival of the yellow-billed loons.  Research on the Common Loon has shown that - as long-lived animals subsisting on a diet of fish - loons can accumulate high levels of mercury (Hg) over a lifetime. Hg has been shown to cause behavioral changes that reduce reproductive success and thus lead to declining populations (Evers et al. 2008). 

Base camp on a lake in YBLO country southeast of Barrow, AK

Mercury Sources in Alaska and Northeast Russia

Coal-fired power plants are the largest source of mercury air emissions worldwide.   Alaska and northeast Russia receive air masses originating in Asia where, over the next eight years, China is expected to add more than 560 coal plants – a pace of more than one new plant each week  (NRDC).  Based on our understanding of how mercury affects the Common Loon and the potential for mercury deposition in Alaska, one can surmise that the survival of the yellow-billed loon may too be impacted by high mercury accumulation.

For more information about Yellow-billed Loons in Alaska, see Jeff Fair's 2002 Status Report.