Pacific loons
Images copyright by Mark A. Chappell
Pacific loons (despite their name) breed across the Arctic, where they sport an elegant gray, black, and white pattern. They molt into a much less flashy non-breeding plumage before migrating south to coastal areas for the winter. The two breeding-plumage birds above were on a small lake along the 'Launch Road' east of Churchill, Manitoba, and the winter-plumage loons below were at Bolsa Chica wetlands in coastal Orange County, California.
