Little grebe

Little grebe
In breeding plumage
Non-breeding plumage
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Podicipediformes
Family: Podicipedidae
Genus: Tachybaptus
Species: T. ruficollis
Binomial name
Tachybaptus ruficollis
(Pallas, 1764)
Range of T. ruficollis      Breeding range     Year-round range     Wintering range
Synonyms

Podiceps ruficollis

The little grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis), also known as dabchick, is a member of the grebe family of water birds. At 23 to 29 cm (9.1 to 11.4 in) in length it is the smallest European member of its family. It is commonly found in open bodies of water across most of its range.

Description

WWT London Wetland Centre, Barnes

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.

From East Kolkata Wetlands, Bengal, India

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 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. 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.

Taxonomy

There are nine currently-recognized subspecies of little grebe, separated principally by size and colouration.[2][3]

The following three subspecies are sometimes split as the tricolored grebe (Tachybaptus tricolor):[3]

Distribution

This bird breeds in small colonies in heavily vegetated areas of freshwater lakes across Europe, much of Asia down to New Guinea, and most of Africa. Most birds move to more open or coastal waters in winter, but it is only migratory in those parts of its range where the waters freeze. Outside of breeding season, it moves into more open water, occasionally even appearing on the coast in small bays.[1]

Behaviour

Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden

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. 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.[5] The young leave the nest and can swim soon after hatching, and chicks are often carried on the backs of the swimming adults.[6] In India, the species breeds during the rainy season.[7]

It does not normally interbreed with the larger grebes in the Old World, but a bird in Cornwall mated with a vagrant North American pied-billed grebe, producing hybrid young.

References

  1. 1 2 BirdLife International (2012). "Tachybaptus ruficollis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  2. ↑ Ogilvie, Malcolm; Rose, Chris (2003). Grebes of the World. Bruce Coleman. ISBN 1-872842-03-8.
  3. 1 2 Gill, F.; Donsker, D., eds. (2014). "IOC World Bird List (v 4.4)". doi:10.14344/IOC.ML.4.4.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Clements, James (2007). The Clements Checklist of the Birds of the World (6 ed.). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-4501-9.
  5. ↑ Prokop, Pavel; Trnka, Alfréd (2011). "Why do grebes cover their nests? Laboratory and field tests of two alternative hypotheses" (PDF). Journal of Ethology 29: 17–22. doi:10.1007/s10164-010-0214-4.
  6. ↑ Finn, Frank (1905). "Notes on the nesting of the Indian Dabchick". Bird Notes 4: 10–17.
  7. ↑ Dalgliesh, Gordon (1906). "Notes on the Indian Podicipedidae". The Avicultural Magazine 5 (2): 65–72.

External links

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