Fe, a record-setting Michigan loon, births ‘downy fluffballs’ No. 43 and 44

• Fe, a nearly 40-year-old loon at Seney National Wildlife Refuge, is the oldest and most reproductive loon on record 
• She hatched two more chicks this season, bringing her known total to at least 44 
• Researchers believe her true chick count may be in the 50s, dating back to before they began tracking her 35 years ago

A Michigan loon that experts say was already "the world's most productive" has done it again. 

Fe, the record-breaking loon in the Upper Peninsula, just added two more chicks to a brood that’s spanned more than three decades. She recently hatched number 43 and 44 at Seney National Wildlife Refuge.

Tracked for the past 35 years — and likely at least four years older than that — Fe is both the oldest known common loon and the most reproductive. 

Her latest milestone was confirmed by Damon McCormick of Common Coast Research & Conservation and announced by Seney on Sunday. McCormick has documented Fe’s nesting activity for years. 

“In Fe’s second nesting attempt this season, on Wednesday and Thursday, two more downy fluffballs emerged after nearly a month of shared incubation between her and her … mate,” McCormick wrote on social media. 

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Fe already holds the known world record for the number of offspring produced by a common loon. But researchers suspect the true count may be in the 50s, since she had at least one chick when she was first branded at Seney National Wildlife Refuge in 1990. 

“Unlike mammals … loons don’t have that period of senescence,” or deterioration with age, Joe Kaplan, who monitors Fe alongside McCormick at Common Coast Research & Conservation, told Bridge Michigan. 

“They tend to keep going until they die.”

Seney, a 95,238-acre wildlife refuge in Schoolcraft County, is the perfect place for breeding because it’s protected, Kaplan said. That means Fe doesn’t have to worry about predators, and there’s less fishing pressure. 

Loons are a threatened species in Michigan, protected under both state and federal law, which has drawn attention to mating pairs.

Over the last three decades, Fe’s nesting and mate history have been closely followed. From 1990 to 1996, she raised seven chicks with a male loon, Dewlap. After what McCormick described as a “fierce battle,” Fe paired with another branded male, ABJ. The couple remained together for 25 years, producing 32 hatchlings before splitting in 2022. 

Since then, both loons have reproduced with new partners. 

At nearly 40 years old, Fe continues to defy odds. Most loons don’t live nearly as long or produce as many chicks. 

“Historically, what we've seen is that loons will lay their eggs. Their eggs take about 28 days, 29 days to hatch on average, and those eggs have to hatch historically before the first week of July,” said Melissa Jorgensen, state coordinator for the Michigan Loon Preservation Association. 

“From what I see in our data, a pair won't have a chick every year. It's every other year, some as infrequently as every five years,” Jorgensen added.

“There are a lot of factors that will go into that, anything from nest disturbance, to predators, to human disturbance, to just something in the weather tells them they don't want to nest that year.” 

Michigan’s Endangered Species Act of 1994 prohibits individuals from taking, harming or killing loons in an effort to preserve the population. 

Wildlife officials also urge people to keep their distance from nests and observe loons from afar. Loud calls or wing-flapping can be signs that the bird feels threatened and needs more space.