08/07/2026
Update: We have been recieving a lot of calls and messages about Common Loon families. We appreciate all of your help! We are looking for a loon family that has lost all it's chicks within the last 24 hours, or only have 1 chick that is 3 to 4 weeks of age. Loons that have not had chicks this year or have lost their chicks over 24 hours ago do not fit the criteria for the possibility of a successful release.
Common Loons are great parents, but they are also very protected and territorial regarding their young. This makes the fostering process risky, so we need to be cautious about which family we attempt to foster our Common Loon chick with.
We will be asking for pictures or videos of the Loon Families to help us age the chick. If you think you may have the right foster family, we will ask for the pictures and videos before moving forward with evaluating the Common Loon family.
Thank you again for all of your assistance!
Loon Foster Attempt; FAMILY NEEDED
Please Read Carefully:
On July 28 we admitted a loon chick that had been found on a roadway with unknown cause. Likely it had been ousted from its family due to limited resources or sibling rivalry.
We estimate that it is roughly four to five weeks old.
The ideal situation for this loon would be to foster it, which means to find a pair of parent loons that have either lost their baby or have lost one of their babies.
Yesterday, we came close. Two residents and loon enthusiasts on a local lake, who watch the loons on their lake closely, noticed that two parent loons were without their baby. The residents spent the day searching the lake for the baby, with no luck. By late afternoon they contacted us, believing that the loon chick had died.
We knew success was not guaranteed. Sometimes adult loons reject attempted fosters, and we had a plan should this be the case and we needed to try to quickly remove the baby from the adults who can, if they reject the foster, turn violent toward it. But we had to at least try.
Two rehabbers, one intern, and our admin assistant packed up the necessary supplies, and the loon chick, and headed out.
We arrived at the lake house, our intern and admin assistant boarded a pontoon with the loon chick, nets, and our hand held radio. Our two rehabbers launched kayaks, also with nets and radios in hand, and we set out on the water. The residents used binoculars to scan the shoreline to find the loons.
From afar, we found the two adults, over by a beach, and so we headed their way. As we got closer, however, we realized there were not two, but three, birds.
The good news–the baby had not died. The more complicated news, after consulting with local loon expert Linda Grenzer, with Loon Rescue, we determined that there was at least a two week age difference between the chick on the lake and the chick in our care, and those two weeks were too big a difference to attempt a foster.
So, now we turn to you. The loon chick in our care needs to find a family.
It was a late hatch. To successfully foster him, we need to find a pair of adult loons who have lost their baby or one of their babies–ideally within the last 24-48 hours. Time is of the essence when attempting a foster. If there is one baby, it has to be about the same age as the one we have, which can be determined visually. The chick here still has black fluff/it doesn't yet have its primary feathers.
We are sending this message out to the public in hopes that someone in northern Wisconsin might be aware of a pair of loons that has recently lost a chick.
If you think you know of an eligible potential family, please call us at 715-356-7400. We will talk with you about the situation (gathering information like how long the baby has been gone) and ask you to send photos.
Thank you!
