#0834 · 🐦 birds
Yellow-billed Loon
🇳🇱 Geelsnavelduiker ·Gavia adamsii
8 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
The yellow-billed loon ( Gavia adamsii ), also known as the white-billed diver , is the largest member of the loon or diver family. Breeding adults have a black head, white underparts and chequered black-and-white mantle. Non-breeding plumage is drabber with the chin and foreneck white. The main distinguishing feature from great northern loon is the longer straw-yellow bill which, because the culmen is straight, appears slightly uptilted.
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- Spotted 14 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist.
- 1,251 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Weighs up to about 5.1 kg.
- Scientifically named by George Robert Gray in 1859 (167 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Yellow-billed Loon
- Nederlands
- Geelsnavelduiker
- scientific name
- Gavia adamsii
- class
- Aves
- order
- Gaviiformes
- family
- Gaviidae
- IUCN Red List
- NT · near threatened
- sightings in NL
- 14
- sightings in Europe
- 171
- sightings worldwide
- 1,251
- GBIF records in NL
- 2,737
- weight
- 5.1 kg
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1859 by George Robert Gray
IUCN in Dutch: gevoelig. Blank means the sources don't say.
relatives· Gaviidae
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 4622, Wikidata Q208328, GBIF 2481957, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.