Yellow-billed Loon - Taxonomy and Etymology

Taxonomy and Etymology

First described by English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1859 based on a specimen collected in Alaska, the Yellow-billed Loon is a monotypic species, with no subspecies despite its large Holarctic range. It is closely related to the Great Northern Loon, which it strongly resembles in plumage and behaviour; some taxonomists consider the two species to be allopatric forms of the same superspecies. Both are thought to have evolved from a population of Black-throated Loons which colonized the Nearctic and were subsequently cut off from other populations.

The genus name Gavia comes from the Latin for "sea mew", as used by ancient Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder. The specific epithet adamsii honours Edward Adams, a British Naval surgeon and naturalist who sketched and collected numerous species, including this one, on several trips to the Arctic. The word "loon" is thought to have derived from the Swedish lom, the Old Norse or Icelandic lómr, or the Old Dutch loen, all of which mean "lame" or "clumsy", and is a probable reference to the difficulty that all loons have in moving about on land. "Diver" refers to the family's underwater method of hunting for prey, while "yellow-billed" and "white-billed" are references to the bird's distinctively pale bill.