My guess is that the bird was naturally stained, rather than dyed by people.
It's fairly common for birds' feathers to get stained by coloration in water or soil. I've seen this most frequently in Sandhill Cranes, Snow Geese, and swans. Usually it's a rusty color like what you describe, presumably from tannins or iron-rich soils. I've never seen a loon with that kind of staining, but there's a bird at this link that fits: http://www.whatbird.com/forum/index.php?/topic/102917-golden-loon/. I think it's much more likely that this bird had its feathers naturally stained, than that someone caught it and dyed it. I believe loons that are caught and marked are typically tagged with colored leg bands, like the ones shown here: http://www.briloon.org/about-bri/support-bri/adopt-a-loon. Loons bring their feet out of the water often enough, especially when preening, that these aren't too hard to get a look at. Hope that helps! Matt Dufort Minneapolis On Mon, Sep 1, 2014 at 11:21 PM, Wise, Paul <[email protected]> wrote: > Saw a common loon on a little lake in Crow Wing county today that looked > like it had been > dipped in a rust/orange dye. Is that done? If so, is there any way to > find out who did it and > why? Just curious. > > ---- > Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net > Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html > ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
