A black Throated Diver nesting at the edge of a Scottish Highland Loch in Wester Ross
Field characters: Slightly larger and longer bodied than Red-throated Diver with heavier head and straight billed. Adult breeding: Crown, upper face, and hind neck grey, lower face darker grey, shading into black chin and throat. Sides of neck narrowly striped black and white; narrow half necklace of white streaks divides throat from large black patch on foreneck, latter widening towards base; neck-side stripes extend over sides of breast. Mantle and scapulars basically blue-black, relieved by 4 areas of regular transverse white spots and checks; wing and upper tail-coverts black, spotted white. Underparts white. Bill black; legs and feet grey-black; eyes red. Adult winter: Plumage darkens more than any other diver. Forehead, mantle, and scapulars uniform dark brown; darker than crown and hind neck which show greyish cast and appear paler. Underparts silky-white except for brown spots or streaks across upper throat, on sides of chest, and along top flanks. Bill grey, with darker culmen and tip. Juvenile: Like winter adult, but upperparts browner (except for blackish forehead) and less uniform, with round feather-margins grey and appearing as pale scales in good light. Bill pale grey, sometimes bluish-white with dark culmen and tip even more obvious; eyes browner than adult. These streamlined diving birds sit low in the water and dive with consummate ease. On land they are clumsy, barely able to walk with their legs so far back on their bodies. They are easily disturbed when breeding and their vulnerability to marine pollution make them a vulnerable as well as rare breeding species. They are listed as a Schedule 1 species on The Wildlife and Countryside Act.
Size: 5004px × 4889px
Location: Field characters: Slightly larger and longer bodied than Red-throated Diver with heavier head and st
Photo credit: © David Gowans / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -, 1, 1981, act, action, amber, arctic, artica, bill., biodiversity, bird, birds, black, breeding, call, coasts, conservation, countryside, dagger-, diet, disturbed, diver, easily, eggs, fish, gavia, habitat, haunting, highland, incubating, inland, land, large, lochs, loon, nesting, ornithology, plan., priority, protected, protection., remote, reservoirs, schedule, scottish, sheltered, small, species, status, straight, superb, swimmer, throated, uk, ungainly, vocal, walking, watching, water, wildlife
