What's So Special About Loons?

Recognize that sound? You should, since Hollywood loves to use it in scary movies! Surprise: It’s not a ghost; it’s a bird with a flair for the dramatic. That eerie call belongs [suspenseful pause] to the loon! Kelly Morrissey: I was working at Isle Royale, remote national park in Lake Superior. One night I was giving a loon program, and a visitor walked into the visitor center, and he goes, “Are you the Loon Ranger?” And I looked at him, and I kind of was baffled. And he specified, “Oh, you're doing the program tonight.” Well, yes, I guess that makes me the Loon Ranger. We’ve come to the right place! So what is with that loon call? Kelly: Scientists have decoded four different calls that loons make:. the yodel, the hoot, the wail, and the tremolo. And they all have different meanings. So when we think about the yodel, this is a males-only call, and it is really meant to signify, “I am the big male.” Kelly: Contrast that with the hoot. The hoot is a familial call. It's an intimate one-on-one conversation. You know, it's the “Mom, Mommy, Mama, I need something” kind of call or “Hey, kid, I got food for you. Come here.” But it's very close-contact. It's very quiet. Kelly: The wail is the one that's most commonly confused with the wolf call or the wolf howl. And I've even made that mistake myself. So even rangers mix up this call with wolves’. But it's that long, drawn-out, almost mournful-sounding call that they make. And it's a distance call. It's the, “Hey, where are you? Come here.” Kelly: And then the tremolo is a male-female call. It’s one they both make, trying to defend territory. So loons can yodel, whisper, howl, and basically yell, “Get off my lawn!” But what else makes them different from other birds? Kelly: Loons are built for swimming. They are built for diving. Many birds have hollow bones or bones with a lot of air spaces in them. And that's to allow them to take off and land easier. Loons have solid bones. Kelly: If you ever watch a loon try to take off to fly, it's like watching a big B-52 bomber try to take off on a short runway. They're just not built for it. Hollywood likes to use loon calls all around the world in spooky swamps, but in real life, loons mostly stick to inland freshwater lakes in the northern U.S. and Canada. And when the season ends? These acoustic talents head south. Kelly: Loons can migrate anywhere from as short as a hundred miles to several thousand. Loons in Michigan, where I'm at, are going to typically migrate down to the Gulf. And they're migrating at basically 600 miles a day before they need a rest. They're flapping the entire time. Talk about a workout! How do they decide where to nest, anyway? Kelly: They're really focused on territory. It's not necessarily about the mate; it is about the real estate. So they're looking for those territories that have all of those boxes checked: good clear water, good food, somewhere to stash the kids, somewhere to nest, quiet, privacy, so they’re looking for all of that. Kelly: If you're a little loon chick, you are a target for everything that's hungry from above and below, so loon chicks will spend about 10 days on the back of Mom or Dad. They're super buoyant when they're little. When they start trying to dive, they just *pop* right back up. These cute little corks are also indicators of environmental health. Kelly: Loons ultimately rely on healthy fish populations. Changes often suggest a damaged fishery. Numbers can reflect the ecological health of that entire space. Across the board in these northern states, we have seen a decline in nesting success. Tracking these changes helps scientists protect loons—and the waters they depend on. When loons thrive, so do the lakes—and everything that calls these bodies of water home. Next time you hear that iconic wail in a movie, remember, it’s a loon stealing the scene. And the Loon Ranger has the receipts.