Great Grebe - BirdForum Opus

Photo © by notactuallytom
Pantanos de Villa, Lima, Peru, June 2013

Podiceps major

Identification

Fishing action, subspecies navasi
Photo © by Luis R
Bucalemu, Región de Valparaiso, Chile, August 2015

Approximately 67–77 cm (26½-30¼ in). The largest and longest-necked grebe in South America.

• Large
• Dagger-like bill
• Long neck

Adult breeding

Juvenile
Photo © by jmorlan
Pantanos de Villa Wildlife Refuge, Lima, Peru, December 2017

• Blackish-brown with green gloss above
• Browner on wings
• Upper breast and flanks chestnut
• White underparts
• Short tufted crest on nape
• Grey ear-coverts, lores , chin, and throat
• Chestnut sides of neck and foreneck
• Black bill
• Blackish-grey legs

Adult Non-breeding

Similar to adult breeding

• Greyer above
• Duller flanks
• Whiter underparts
• Duller crown
• Whiter cheeks giving a more distinctly capped effect

Juvenile

Similar to Non-breeding but duller and browner and face and neck with indistinct stripes.

Flight

• Wings dark above
• Broad white trailing edge to secondaries
• White underwing coverts

Variation

Southern birds have darker sides of head

Distribution

Southern South America from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil south to Tierra del Fuego and north on the Pacific coast to Coquimba, Chile and again from Pisco north to Piura, Peru.

Vagrant to the Falkland Islands. There are two old records from Spain but these are extremely unlikely to involve genuine vagrants. Common in Patagonia.

Taxonomy

Subspecies

There are 2 subspecies^[1]:

• P. m. major:

• Southern Brazil to southern Argentina and central Chile; coastal Peru

• P. m. navasi:

• Southern Argentina and southern Chile

Habitat

Lowland lakes and rivers moving to coastal lagoons and estuaries after breeding.

Behaviour

Especially in southern end of range will winter on the sea, sometimes in congregations.

Diet

Their diet consists mostly of fish, though apparently insects and shelfish are also though to be eaten.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2017. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2017, with updates to August 2017. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved July 2014)
3. Alvaro Jaramillo. 2003. Birds of Chile. Princeton Field Guides. ISBN 0-691-11740-3

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Great Grebe. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 24 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Great_Grebe

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