Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Gaviiformes > Gaviidae > Gavia > Gavia stellata

Gavia stellata (Red-throated Loon)

Synonyms:
Language: French; Spanish

Wikipedia Abstract

The red-throated loon or red-throated diver (Gavia stellata) is a migratory aquatic bird found in the northern hemisphere. The most widely distributed member of the loon or diver family, it breeds primarily in Arctic regions, and winters in northern coastal waters. Ranging from 55–67 centimetres (22–26 in) in length, the red-throated loon is the smallest and lightest of the world's loons. In winter, it is a nondescript bird, greyish above fading to white below. During the breeding season, it acquires the distinctive reddish throat patch which is the basis for its common name. Fish form the bulk of its diet, though amphibians, invertebrates and plant material are sometimes eaten as well. A monogamous species, the red-throated loon forms long-term pair bonds. Both members of the pair help to
View Wikipedia Record: Gavia stellata

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
25
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
49
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 49.4845
EDGE Score: 3.92167
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Clutch Size [7]  2
Clutches / Year [4]  1
Fledging [6]  43 days
Global Population (2017 est.) [3]  260,000
Incubation [4]  28 days
Mating System [8]  Monogamy
Maximum Longevity [4]  24 years
Migration [1]  Intercontinental
Speed [9]  41.607 MPH (18.6 m/s)
Water Biome [1]  Lakes and Ponds, Rivers and Streams, Coastal
Wing Span [9]  3.411 feet (1.04 m)
Adult Weight [2]  3.534 lbs (1.603 kg)
Birth Weight [4]  55 grams
Female Weight [6]  3.256 lbs (1.477 kg)
Male Weight [6]  3.812 lbs (1.729 kg)
Weight Dimorphism [6]  17.1 %
Breeding Habitat [3]  Arctic tundra, Boreal forests
Wintering Geography [3]  Coastal U.S./Canada
Wintering Habitat [3]  Coastal marine
Diet [5]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Piscivore
Diet - Fish [5]  90 %
Diet - Invertibrates [5]  10 %
Forages - Water Surface [5]  100 %
Female Maturity [4]  3 years
Male Maturity [4]  3 years

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

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Ecosystems

Important Bird Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Caucasus Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Russia, Turkey No
Indo-Burma Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Viet Nam No
Japan Japan No
Mediterranean Basin Algeria, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Portugal, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey No

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Predators

Haliaeetus leucocephalus (Bald Eagle)[12]

Consumers

Range Map

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 2Storchová, Lenka; Hořák, David (2018), Data from: Life-history characteristics of European birds, Dryad, Dataset, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n6k3n
♦ 3Partners in Flight Avian Conservation Assessment Database, version 2017. Accessed on January 2018.
♦ 4de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 5Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 6Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 7Jetz W, Sekercioglu CH, Böhning-Gaese K (2008) The Worldwide Variation in Avian Clutch Size across Species and Space PLoS Biol 6(12): e303. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060303
♦ 8Terje Lislevand, Jordi Figuerola, and Tamás Székely. 2007. Avian body sizes in relation to fecundity, mating system, display behavior, and resource sharing. Ecology 88:1605
♦ 9Alerstam T, Rosén M, Bäckman J, Ericson PGP, Hellgren O (2007) Flight Speeds among Bird Species: Allometric and Phylogenetic Effects. PLoS Biol 5(8): e197. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0050197
♦ 10del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 11Food web topology and parasites in the pelagic zone of a subarctic lake, Per-Arne Amundsen, Kevin D. Lafferty, Rune Knudsen, Raul Primicerio, Anders Klemetsen and Armand M. Kuris, Journal of Animal Ecology 2009, 78, 563–572
♦ 12Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 13Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0