Pacific and Red-throated Loons

Erika and I photographed these loons 14 and 18 January 2022 at the Nisqually national wildlife refuge. Clearly both are belong to one of the three smaller loon species. Neither bird shows a large white splotch at the tail end, so neither is the very similar, but much rarer, Arctic Loon. Examine the image of the more distant loon. The bill, although held above the horizontal in this individual, is straight, not appearing curved upward. The back is barred, not spotted. The front of the throat is not uniformly white and there is a dark pattern of the base of the neck. Last, but possibly not least, the back is relatively black, although a close look will reveal white bars (rather than spots). The closer loon has different field marks, most clearly not like those I just listed for the first. Therefore, I conclude that the distant bird is probably a Pacific Loon, whereas the close one is a Red-throated Loon.