Its main distinguishing feature is the long straw-yellow bill which, because the culmen is straight, appears slightly uptilted.

It breeds in the Arctic and winters mainly at sea along the coasts of the northern Pacific Ocean and northwestern Norway; it also sometimes overwinters on large inland lakes.

First described by English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1859 based on a specimen collected in Alaska, the yellow-billed loon is a monotypic species, with no subspecies despite its large Holarctic range.

[2] It is closely related to the common loon, which it strongly resembles in plumage and behaviour; some taxonomists consider the two species to be allopatric forms of the same superspecies.

The specific epithet adamsii honours Edward Adams, a British naval surgeon and naturalist who sketched and collected numerous species, including this one,[4] on several trips to the Arctic.

Like all members of its family, the yellow-billed loon builds a nest of plant material very close to the edge of the water.

The pair defends its large territory intensively against intruders, but may later in the breeding season gang up with other birds on good fishing spots.

In 2010, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) changed the status of the yellow-billed loon from Least Concern to Near Threatened, as the species appears to be in a "moderately rapid" population decline.

They need to live in areas with large, deep lakes and these environments are threatened due to high rates of human interaction, such as oil drilling, and the warming climate of their natural habitats.