#0763 · 🐦 birds
Common Loon
🇳🇱 IJsduiker ·Gavia immer
8 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
The common loon or great northern diver ( Gavia immer ) is a large member of the loon, or diver, family of birds. Breeding adults have a plumage that includes a broad black head and neck with a greenish, purplish, or bluish sheen, blackish or blackish-grey upperparts, and pure white underparts except some black on the undertail coverts and vent. Non-breeding adults are brownish with a dark neck and head marked with dark grey-brown. Their upperparts are dark...
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 41 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist.
- 70,399 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Weighs up to about 5.5 kg.
- Scientifically named by Morten Thrane Brünnich in 1764 (262 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Common Loon
- Nederlands
- IJsduiker
- scientific name
- Gavia immer
- class
- Aves
- order
- Gaviiformes
- family
- Gaviidae
- IUCN Red List
- LC · least concern
- sightings in NL
- 41
- sightings in Europe
- 2,483
- sightings worldwide
- 70,399
- GBIF records in NL
- 24,216
- weight
- 5.5 kg
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1764 by Morten Thrane Brünnich
IUCN in Dutch: niet bedreigd. Blank means the sources don't say.
relatives· Gaviidae
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 4626, Wikidata Q190342, GBIF 2481962, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.