The Red-throated Loon is the smallest of the world’s five loon species. This species typicallybreeds in low wetlands in both tundra and forested terrain (Barr et al. 2000). They nest on pondedges, sometimes along very small ponds (<1 ha), particularly in parts of their range sympatricwith Pacific Loons (Barr et al. 2000). Red-throated Loons are unique in that they regularlyforage on fish away from their nesting ponds.In Arctic Alaska this often involves flights to theArctic Ocean (Andres 1993). Like Yellow-billed Loons, the North American breedingpopulation, north of 68° latitude, appear to winter primarily in East Asia from the western KurilIslands to the Yellow Sea (J. Schmutz et al., unpublished data). In 1993, the Red-throated Loonpopulation in Alaska was estimated at approximately 10,000 individuals (Groves et al. 1996)while more recent surveys indicated an estimated population size of 2-3,000 on the ArcticCoastal Plain of Alaska (Larned et al. 2012).
