Dive with white nozzle

The Dive with white nozzle ( Gavia adamsii ), as called Dive in yellow nozzle and Quebec Huart with white nozzle or Huart with yellow nozzle , is largest of the Gaviidé S, although it is only slightly larger as the Plongeon huard, with which it is often confused.

Systematic position and name

Dive comes from Latin plumbicare , to be inserted. The name of white nozzle (or rather ivory actually) makes it possible to distinguish it from the Plongeon huard which it resembles much. Gavia is a Latin term city by Pline and Apulée, indicating a bird of sea. The scientific name of this bird is formed on that of a surgeon of marine and naturalist, Edward Adams (1824-1856), explorer of the Arctique.

Morphology

Its length varies from 77 to 90 cm, with a Envergure going from 135 to 150 cm. The adults nicheurs have the black head, the white belly and the back decorated with a drawing in Damier black and white. The plumage of winter is duller, with the chin and before neck white. The character which differentiates it from the Plongeon huard is the yellow nozzle held above the horizontal one.

Behavior

This species, like all the dives, is a specialized Piscivore, capturing its preys under water. This bird is rather dumb in winter. Its cry resembles a mewing, or a complaint, acuter than that of the dive huard. It emits sometimes cries resembling of the sound laughter. It flies with the tended neck.

Distribution and habitat

It niche in the Arctic (Russia, Alaska and Canada) and winters at sea, especially off the coasts of Norway and of the West of the Canada; in winter, one can sometimes meet it on the big lakes of the interior of the grounds.

Erratic individuals were announced in Europe of the South, such as for example in Spain or Yugoslavia

Statute and safeguarding

This bird is protected:

by the Agreement on the conservation of the migrating water birds of Africa-Eurasia, which classifies it in the category B2c (rather many Population but requiring a special attention because of a demonstration of a significant decline in the long run) the dives with white nozzle of the North-West of the Europe, and of category B1 (Population very few) those of the east of the Mediterranean, Black Sea and Caspian Sea.
by US Migratory Bird Act

IUCN place this bird in the " category; concern mineure" , and its world population estimates at 22.000 or 25.000 individuals, which is a number quite lower than those estimated for the other dives. Its surface of distribution is estimated at 1 to 10 million km ².
Étrangement, the European commission, which protects all the other European dives, does not make be reproduced this species on the list of the threatened birds.
Birdlife international considers the population European at 500 wintering individuals, mainly close to the Norwegian coasts . The wintering population seems stable.

Photographs and vidéos

Photo Calphotos
Gallery photo Flickr on Avibase

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