Regina Herrington, age 11, of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, for her question:

Does the loon belong to the goose or duck family?

The geese, the ducks and the loons are web footed birds that love the water. All of them are fine swimmers but the loon is the champion diver. You would think that all these birds must be cousins, or at least close relatives of the same family. How¬ever, the loon is more closely related to the grebes. The name of his bird family is Gaviida.

The ducks and geese belong to the big family Anatidae, and so do the elegant swans. However, the geese are not very close cousins. For this reason, they are classed in a separate subfamily of their own. A goose belongs in Anatidae, the duck family    and also in his own subfamily, Anserinae. The loon has a separate family of his own.