Red-throated Diver (Colymbis Septentrionalis), Volume 3, Plate 202

Audubon painted the pair of loons and their offspring in Labrador on July 5, 1833. The adult on the left was added in Boston later that year.

While the adult is in its winter plumage, the young loons are shown in their breeding plumage (clearly, Audubon’s desire to convey scientific information trumps verisimilitude). The background-presumably Audubon’s own-shows the insectivorous pitcher plant, which adds a darker note to a painting/engraving in which everyone seems to be warily waiting for something to happen. The corresponding essay does in fact, above all, stress the loon’s vigilance.

From John James Audubon’s Ornithological Biography

The Red-throated Diver is at all times an extremely shy and vigilant bird, ever on the alert to elude its numerous enemies. The sight of man seems invariably to alarm it, even in the wildest countries in which it breeds. I have often observed that, while yet several hundred yards from them, they marked my approach with great watchfulness. First they would dive and make their way to the farther end of the pond, after which, with outstretched necks, they would remain silent and motionless, until I approached within about a hundred yards, when, instead of diving again, as the Loon always does, they at once, with a single spring, rose from the water, and ere I had proceeded a few yards, they were already eight or ten feet above it. If I crept towards them through the tangled mosses or shrubs, they would swim about with their heads elevated, as if determined to make their escape on the appearance of imminent danger. In many instances, my party observed this species in small flocks of five or six in the same lake, when it happened to be of considerable extent; and as this was during the height of the breeding season, we concluded that these associated birds were barren, as I ascertained that males and females, when once paired, remain together until their young are able to fly, when they part company, until the next pairing season, which is about the first of March.