Order: Podicipediformes

Family: Podicipedidae

 

Size:  up to 23 - 29 cm.

Weight: 110-370 g.

 

Key Features: The little grebe is a small water bird with a pointed bill. The adult is unmistakable in summer, predominantly dark above with its rich, rufous colour neck, cheeks and flanks, and bright yellow gape. The rufous is replaced by a dirty brownish grey in non-breeding and juvenile birds. Juvenile birds have a yellow bill with a small black tip, and black and white streaks on the cheeks and sides of the neck as seen below. This yellow bill darkens as the juveniles age, eventually turning black once in adulthood. In winter, its size, buff plumage, with a darker back and cap, and “powder puff” rear end enable easy identification of this species.

 

Voice:  The little grebe's breeding call, given singly or in duet, is a trilled  repeated  weet-weet-weet or wee-wee-wee which sounds like a horse whinnying.

 

Breeding: Usually four to seven eggs are laid. When the adult bird leaves the nest it usually takes care to cover the eggs with weeds. This makes it less likely to be detected by predators. The young leave the nest and can swim soon after hatching, and chicks are often carried on the backs of the swimming adults.  In India, the species breeds during the rainy season.

 

Diet:  Its diet consists predominantly of adult and larval insects, especially mayflies, stoneflies, water bugs, beetles, flies, caddis flies and dragon flies, as well as molluscs (e.g. freshwater snails), crustaceans, adult and juvenile amphibians (e.g. small frogs and newts) and occasionally small fish (up to 11 cm) during the winter.

 

Habitat: It is commonly found in open bodies of water across most of its range. The species inhabits a wide range of small and shallow wetlands less than 1 m deep with rich vegetation (floating, submerged and emergent) and high densities of aquatic invertebrates, generally avoiding waters with large predatory fish 

 

Habits: The little grebe is an excellent swimmer and diver and pursues its fish and aquatic invertebrate prey underwater. It uses the vegetation skilfully as a hiding place. Like all grebes, it nests at the water's edge, since its legs are set very far back and it cannot walk well.

 

Conservation Status: Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

 

 

 

 

 

 

References:

Tachybaptus ruficollis. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved on July 02, 2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_grebe

 

BirdLife International (2014) Species factsheet: Tachybaptus ruficollis. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on July 02, 2014

 

IUCN Red List http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/22696545/0

 

Photo Courtesy

Andreas Trepte, Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons

Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis)