The Beauty of the Bird of the Year

Author James D. Paruk is a leading expert on loons, especially the Common Loon. His fascination with these birds is apparent from the first pages of Loon Lessons, his very readable account of three decades devoted to researching them. “I recall vividly the moment when the seed of passion and wonder for loons began in me: it was when I first touched one in the wild.” That moment, in which he helped a college friend capture and band a loon, changed the course of his life. By beginning each chapter with a personal story like this one, the author brings readers into his felt experience and illuminates not just what is known about loons but the very nature of conducting research, building hypotheses, and making discoveries.

In 12 well-organized chapters that range from the birds’ evolutionary beginnings to today’s conservation threats, including loons’ adaptations to human activities and a changing climate, Paruk assembles in one place just about everything anyone could possibly want to know about loons. Why are a loon’s legs set so far back on its body? Why do they waggle their feet? How and why did the checkerboard pattern evolve? What do a Common Loon’s different vocalizations—including wails, tremolos, and yodels—mean, and how are they produced? Such aspects of loon biology and behavior are placed by Paruk in larger, comparative contexts that extend well beyond loon, or even bird, species into considerations of life’s overall mysteries and magnificence.

While Paruk draws upon the studies and knowledge of others, he focuses primarily on his personal research, which he’s conducted all over the U.S. and Canada. As a scientist working in the field, he lays out his questions, develops theories, and draws conclusions from his observations and data. In his wonderment about the Common Loon’s spectacular plumage, he posits that it has to do with intraspecific communication. That is, the bird is advertising itself to other loons. A loon’s “necklace”? He similarly suspects that it’s another case of communication; a head held high, exhibiting neck markings, conveys dominance. These are difficult theories to test, Paruk admits, and, while he offers no supporting studies beyond his own observations and his understandings from behavioral ecology, his curiosity and speculation are a shareable pleasure.

Although Paruk avoids citing most sources within his text, presumably to maintain the narrative flow, he follows each chapter with a list of “further reading” that includes scientific papers, including his own, as well as books and articles that he’s consulted. The book also includes colored photographs, maps, illustrations, and a list of conservation resources, with the names and websites of loon organizations and monitoring programs. These resources are more than enough to send intrigued readers on their own quests for additional information.

Paruk is an effective communicator, and one of his strengths is the use of analogies. How does the structure of a loon’s bill help it catch fish? The upper and lower bills move independently, just as a person would use chopsticks to pick up a bite of fish. What advantages come from an early arrival at a lake to begin nesting? His comparison to getting to a tennis court early, to avoid waiting for a court, is perhaps more of a stretch.

Of particular interest and use to readers may be Paruk’s chapters about environmental threats. In discussing habitats and food availability, the author writes, “The North American loon population has increased or stayed the same for the last couple of decades, despite an increase in factors that mostly lead to lower reproductive success and survival.” Some of the pressures on loons are an increase in eagle populations (the eagle being a major predator), human recreational development, mercury deposition (originating primarily from the burning of coal), and the use of lead tackle. The usual explanation for the population’s stability is increased management efforts including nest protections; Paruk speculates that the stocking of fish in reservoirs is also helping.

Because loons bioaccumulate mercury from the fish they eat, they serve as biosentinels for environmental health. Paruk describes research that has shown that mercury contamination has caused lower reproductive success in loons; compromised birds were less attentive to both incubating their eggs and feeding their young. Lead poisoning by as little as one ingested split shot sinker can cause drooping wings, head shakings, green feces, and death within three weeks. Paruk himself spent seven years assessing damages to loons from the Deepwater Horizon’s oil spill; his team calculated that between four and 11 percent of wintering loons in the Gulf of Mexico died outright, and that birds were sickened for many years after.

A final chapter, titled “Loon Watch: Adapting to a Changing World,” centers on loons and human activity. Shoreline development, boating collisions, disturbance, increased predation by raccoons and gulls, and changes in reservoir water levels are all problems that can be mitigated by management decisions. In some cases, loons have been reintroduced to areas from which they were previously extirpated. Finally, Paruk discusses why climate change will likely become a serious threat. Warmer temperatures lead to lake eutrophication and a shift in the structure of lake communities and available prey. One climate model suggests that loons could disappear completely from Minnesota by the end of this century as suitable breeding range moves to the north. Tropical diseases are also moving northward, with both malaria and West Nile virus already infecting loons.

Toward the end, Paruk asks, “Why do humans feel compelled to help loons, wildlife, or other people? Because at our core we are compassionate . . . Loons remind us with their constant vocalizing and stunning appearance that we share this planet with other inhabitants.” The passion and compassion the author brings to his long involvement with loons and the greater natural world are a testament to this.