She’s the Oldest Common Loon in the World. She Just Had Her 42nd Chick

The soap opera continues: The world’s oldest common loon hatched two chicks this year, lengthening her record-setting streak as a successful mother.

Fe (pronounced “fay”), a female loon who is at least 38 years old, had another fruitful breeding season at Seney National Wildlife Refuge on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Already the world’s most productive loon, Fe has now hatched at least 42 offspring.

Damon McCormick, co-director of the nonprofit Common Coast Research & Conservation, shared the news on the refuge’s Facebook page last month. The organization supports conservation and research efforts at Seney.

“Fe, the oldest documented Common Loon, hatched two chicks last week with her unbanded … mate,” wrote McCormick on July 19. “The young were, at minimum, Fe’s 41st and 42nd offspring, extending her record for the species.”

But even as the world’s most fruitful common loon, Fe still suffers the occasional loss. One of her two chicks this year died shortly after hatching, from an unknown cause. That’s not unusual, as one in five loon hatchlings at Seney do not survive to autumn, per McCormick. But loon hatchlings have a higher survival rate at the refuge than young ducks, geese and swans do.

If her second chick makes it through the summer, that means 86 percent of Fe’s offspring will have fledged successfully.

Fe initially rose to fame as one half of the “resident power couple” at the 95,000-acre wildlife refuge. For more than two decades, she paired up with a male named ABJ, who is now 37 years old.

The two first got together in 1997 and returned to Seney each spring to mate, eventually making headlines as the two oldest loons in the world. Common loons are not monogamous, but ABJ and Fe spent 25 breeding seasons together, raising dozens of chicks and amassing a loyal following of human fans.

But in 2022, the pair shocked the world by ending their long-running partnership. It’s not entirely clear why they parted ways, but scientists suspect they got pushed out of their usual pond by a younger couple and fled to different parts of the refuge.

That same spring, Fe mated with an unnamed male and hatched her 40th chick. The following year, in the spring of 2023, Fe and her new partner attempted to breed again but were unsuccessful.

ABJ, meanwhile, spent the 2022 breeding season alone. In 2023, he paired up with a female named Daisy, who was 20 years his junior, but their rendezvous did not produce any chicks. Last year, he also broke the upper part of his bill—probably during a fight with another male—but it later healed.

This year, when the common loons returned to Seney in the spring, onlookers were eager to see whether Fe and ABJ might get back together. But it wasn’t meant to be: Fe took back up with her new male partner, while ABJ again tried—and failed—to breed with Daisy. (This time, scientists think a male challenged ABJ and “forcibly evicted” him from his territory with Daisy, according to another Facebook post from McCormick.)

Biologists know so much about ABJ, Fe and other common loons at Seney because of a long-running banding and monitoring program maintained by volunteers and staff. ABJ was banded as a chick 37 years ago, while Fe was banded in 1990, the first year on record that she reproduced. Scientists think Fe was at least 4 years old at the time, which would make her 38 now, but they can only guess at what happened before that.

“As her earlier life history in the 1980s is a mystery, Fe could well be older than 38, and with more than 42 progeny to her credit,” McCormick writes on Facebook. (Before linking up with ABJ in 1997, Fe produced at least seven chicks with a male named Dewlap.)

Common loons are water birds that breed on freshwater lakes in the northern United States and Canada. When temperatures start to plummet in the fall, they migrate east and west to the warmer, coastal waters of both the Atlantic and the Pacific.

In the summer, breeding adults have distinctive black and white plumage that grows in checkered and striped patterns. These birds are well-adapted to life on the water: They spend much of their time floating on the surface or swimming submerged, where they use their long bills to catch fish. Loons have solid bones, which sets them apart from most other birds, which have pneumatized, or hollow, bones. Their denser skeletons make them superb divers.

This article by Sarah Kuta was first published by The Smithsonian on 7 August 2024. Lead Image: Fe (pictured with her mate) hatched two chicks this breeding season, bringing the total number of her known offspring to 42. Dani Fegan / Seney National Wildlife Refuge via Facebook. 

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