FALL RIVER, MASS. (WHDH) - For the first time in more than 100 years, a common loon chick has hatched in southeastern Massachusetts, wildlife officials announced Thursday.
The chick hatched this spring in Fall River, according to the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife and Biodiversity Research Institute.
Officials said the historic hatchling is the result of a multi-year loon restoration initiative.
In 2015, BRI relocated loon chicks from Maine and New York to the Assawompset Pond Complex in Lakeville.
“Historically, loons nested in the area before the species was extirpated as a breeding bird in Massachusetts in the late 1800s,” officials said in a news release. “The hope was that translocated loon chicks successfully fledging in southeastern Massachusetts would return to that region to breed as adults in 4–6 years, thereby establishing a new breeding population in the state.”
The male in the Fall River nesting pair, one of the chicks originally relocated from New York, did just that.
“It was a milestone when this particular loon returned to its release lake in 2018, three years after fledging,” said David C. Evers, BRI’s executive director and a leading expert on loon ecology and conservation. “Now in 2020, we are thrilled to report that this male found a mate and their resulting nesting activity produced a chick; visible evidence that breeding loon populations can be restored to their former habitat.”
Common Loons are currently listed as a species of special concern under the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act.
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