📸 PhotoPhoto: Ómar Runólfsson · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Red-throated Loon
Gavia stellata (Red-throated Loon · アビ)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 Because oil on its feathers causes it to lose its diving ability and die, it is especially vulnerable to oil spills (Encyclopedia of Korean Culture).
- 💡 Its average weight of about 1.8 kg is similar to a 2 L bottle of water (about 2 kg) (Comparison).
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
Site-computed relative index from recorded values; not a formal scientific metric.
📖 1. Overview
The Red-throated Loon is the smallest of the loons, breeding in the north and visiting Korean coasts as a winter visitor. It spends the breeding season on freshwater lakes and the winter on calm coastal waters.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Its legs are set far back on the body, making it well suited for swimming and diving but awkward at walking on land. Its bill is slightly upturned, and it can adjust its buoyancy to float with only its eyes and bill above water.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
It mainly eats fish as well as aquatic animals such as crabs, diving for an average of about 1 minute to catch prey. After breeding, it molts all its flight feathers at once and is flightless for several weeks.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
The "Red-throated Loon Wintering Site" off Geoje in Gyeongsangnam-do was designated as a Natural Monument (Korea) on November 4, 1970 (though the species itself is not designated). Oil pollution and entanglement in fishing nets are threats.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List LC (2018) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22697829/131942584
- • IUCN Red List category LC — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • doi.org — avilist.v2026
- • iucnredlist.org — 131942584
- • 국가생물종목록(국립생물자원관) ktsn 120000001478 — https://species.nibr.go.kr/home/mainHome.do?cont_link=009&subMenu=009002&contCd=009002&ktsn=120000001478
- • wikidata.org — Q26691
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Gavia stellata -Iceland -swimming-8.jpg
- • animaldiversity.org — Gavia stellata
- • encykorea.aks.ac.kr — E0034323
- • encykorea.aks.ac.kr — E0001873
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Andy Wilson · CC0 1.0
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.