Places and times seen in Munakata city

Winter bird: It varies from year to year, but from around November to April, you can see it from the shore of Kanamein off the coast of Kanazaki.
In addition, it is sometimes seen from a ship sailing on the Oshima / Chonoshima route. When the ocean becomes rough, sometimes waves enter the relatively calm harbor and the inner bay.

Characteristic

Overall length 72 cm. When spreading the wings, it is a large waterfowl of about 120 cm. Same color of both sexes.
In the summer wings, the front neck has a green luster black spot, and beside it there is a vertical stripe of white and black. Head to back neck is gray. The upper surface is glossy black color, with lattice pattern and elliptical white spot. The belly from the chest is white. The beak is black and dark. The iris is red.
The top of the winter blond is dark brown and spotless. From the cheek to the chest, the underside is white. The beak is a lead color and the tip is black. Young birds resemble winter feathers, but they look slightly brownish.
It rarely sounds in the winter.
It is one size larger than Sierrio Oham.
Abi's beak warps upwards. There is no white part behind the flank of Saroleio Oham.

Habit

The wintering season lives alone, and in the spring migration period it becomes a flock. I often diving and eating small fish etc.

distribution

It arrives on the coast of north of Kyushu as a winter bird, and it is relatively common in the crowd of spring and autumn. It breeds from Siberia to the Scandinavian Peninsula, and in winter, it comes to the Baltic coast, coast of the Japanese archipelago, Pacific side of Kamchatka Peninsula, Kuril Islands, Yellow Sea, East China Sea and so on.

Other

In Munakata, it is necessary to distinguish from Avi, Sieroliioham.