Hello and welcome to the American Birding Podcast from the American Birding Association.

I am your host, Nate Swick.

In 2025, I have the great honor to announce the bird of the year here on the American

Burning podcast.

This is the first piece of ABA media to go out in the new year,

and though perhaps you will see the news elsewhere on the bird internet today,

if you're a podcast listener,

and particularly one that listens pretty soon after downloading,

you are in luck, you get the scoop hot off the presses.

And the bird, that will be the theme of 2025, it's common loon, or maybe great northern

diver, if you prefer. But here in North America, Gavia Emmer is common loon. And what a bird it is,

one that is synonymous with the North Woods, with Minnesota, Maine, Ontario, Quebec. But I think

loons, I think wooded lakes, northern lights, and long, mournful piercing yodels. It's a great bird, one with a lot of panache and attitude,

in addition to being kind of quietly beautiful,

robed in black and white with some iridescent green and purple mixed in,

if you get the right light.

I do have to say, though, that I have lived my entire birding life in places where common

loons are primarily winter visitors. Big deep water reservoirs in the Midwest and now here

in the southeast, they're one of the most common near-shore birds if you go anywhere along the

coast. Lots of common loons. Fishing, flying by the coastline. I've only seen this

bird in its breeding splendor a small handful of times. I know. Sad for me. And then really only

in late March when they're getting ready to head back north. This is also the time that I get to hear the

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