The icons of your summer camping trip are in an unusual situation. Loons — the black and white birds with a distinct and eerie two-note call — spend the warmer months of the year in northern U.S. states and across Canada, returning to the same regional pockets every year to breed. And for some reason, Loons living across New England appear to be thriving, while those in Wisconsin and large parts of Canada are not.
“This is the most complicated thing that you could ever imagine to work on. I mean, this is typical of ecology, right?” says Doug Tozer, a scientist with the Canadian Lakes Loon Survey of Birds Canada. “But this one takes the cake.” As ornithologists sort through the range of possible explanations, they’re weighing the pros and cons of particular research decisions and which struggles are due just to poor luck.
