- Podiceps major
Identification
L. 61cm.
- Large
- Dagger-like bill
- Long neck
Adult breeding
- 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
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
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Podicipediformes
Family: Podicipedidae
Genus: Podiceps
Species: P. major
Subspecies
No subspecies usually recognised but southernmost birds are sometimes separated as P. m. navasi.
Habitat
Lowland lakes and rivers moving to coastal lagoons and estuaries after breeding.
Behaviour
Discussion
The largest and longest-necked grebe in South America.
