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Red-throated Loons are medium-sized aquatic birds. They are the smallest species in the family of the loons. They have different breeding and non-breeding plumages. During the breeding season, the sides of the head turn grey. The top of the head, back of the neck and the sides of the chest are finely streaked black-and-white. Down the throat they have a narrow rusty strip that gives them their name. The rest of the front is white, while the rest of the back is plain-grey. The bill is dark-grey, while the irises are orange-brown. In eclipse the top of the head and the back of the neck turn grey while the rest of the back turns dark-grey with fine white speckles. The side of the head, including a small patch in front of each eye, and the sides of the neck, as well as the entire front, are white. The bill is then light-grey and the irises are darker orange-brown. Juvenile Red-throated Loons resemble adults in eclipse, but the sides of the neck that are white in adults are still light-grey. Chicks are all dark grey-brown, with white eye-rings.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Red-throated Loon is available HERE .

Red-throated Loons breed in the Arctic, across all northern continents and asssociated islands, plus coastal areas of Iceland and Greenland. They also breed at lower latitudes in western Alaska and British Columbia as well as around New Foundland. In the Pacific their breeding range includes Sakhalin and Japan.

In Europe, Red-throated Loons breed only in freshwater habitats such as pools and lakes in (all of) Scandinavia and in north-western Russia. Outside the breeding season they are found mostly in saline water in near-coastal environments, such as the North Sea around southern Norway, Sweden and Denmark, around the British Isles and Ireland, and down the western European coastline of German, the Benelux countries, France and Iberia. They also overwinter along the Cote d'Azure and the Adriatic Sea. Part of the European population overwinters on lakes, mostly around the Alps and the Balkans.

A. Sarok reports spotting a Red-throated Loon in Vojvodina, Serbia, in the timeframe 2010-2024. All sighting and photographic information presented on this page has kindly been contributed by A. Sarok.