black necked grebe

The Black-necked Grebe or Eared Grebe in breeding plumage has black head, neck, breast and upperparts. Sides and flanks are chestnut whereas the belly is white. On the dark upperwing, the secondaries show a white patch well visible in flight. The underwing is white with mostly dark tertials and pale grey-brown outer primaries. On the black head, the erectile crest feathers are black. The elongated feathers extending from the rear eye towards the sides of the nape are golden. The foreneck is often tinged brownish. The black, thin bill may have slightly upturned lower mandible, but sometimes it is straight. The eyes are bright red. Legs and lobbed feet are dark greenish-grey. Male and female are similar. The non-breeding adult has blackish top of head, hindneck and mantle. The rump is white and often fluffy. Body sides, flanks and foreneck are greyish. The breast is mainly white, like both chin and throat. The head appears rounder than in breeding plumage because the crest is shorter. A whitish area extends from the chin and below the eye area, upwards onto the nape. The bill is paler, mostly blue-grey. The juvenile resembles non-breeding adult with neck and back washed brownish. Head sides and upper neck are slightly tinged buffy to tawny. The eyes are much paler than in adults.

Habits are similar to Little Grebe's. Reed-edged lakes with emergent vegetation; also coastal waters in winter. This species is visible from sea-level to mountains, according to the range.

This grebe eats mostly insects, of both adult and larval stages, as well as crustaceans, molluscs, tadpoles, pile worm, marine annelid, and small frogs and fish.

The Black-necked Grebe or Eared Grebe gives a repeated "poo-ee-chk" in bouts of 2-12 calls as advertising call. The female gives higher pitched shorter calls.
In aggression and defence behaviour, they give a harsh, rapidly repeated chattering, becoming a duet when both mates are together after being separated by disturbance. The alarm call is a single sharp "kowee" given by adults at irregular intervals.

The black-necked grebe or eared grebe (Podiceps nigricollis) is a member of the grebe family of water birds. It was described in 1831 by Christian Ludwig Brehm. There are currently three accepted subspecies including the nominate subspecies. Its breeding plumage features a distinctive ochre-coloured plumage which extends behind its eye and over its ear coverts. The rest of the upper parts including the head neck and breast are coloured black to blackish brown. The flanks are tawny rufous to maroon-chestnut and the abdomen is white. When in its non-breeding plumage this bird has greyish-black upper parts including the top of the head and a vertical stripe on the back of the neck. The flanks are also greyish-black. The rest of the body is a white or whitish colour. The juvenile has more brown in its darker areas. The subspecies californicus can be distinguished from the nominate by the former's usually longer bill. The other subspecies P. n. gurneyi can be differentiated by its greyer head and upper parts and by its smaller size. P. n. gurneyi can also be told apart by its lack of a non-breeding plumage. This species is present in parts of Africa Eurasia and the Americas. This species breeds in vegetated areas of freshwater lakes across Europe Asia Africa northern South America and the southwest and western United States. After breeding this bird migrates to saline lakes to moult. Then after completing the moult and waiting for sometimes several months it migrates to winter in places such as the south-western Palearctic and the eastern parts of both Africa and Asia. It also winters in southern Africa another place where it breeds. In the Americas it winters as far south as Guatemala although the wintering population there is mainly restricted to islands in the Gulf of California the Salton Sea and Baja California. When not breeding its habitat is primarily saline lakes and coastal estuaries.