Horned Grebe

Podiceps auritus

Order PODICIPEDIFORMES - Family PODICIPEDIDAE

Menu

1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

Familiar to most North American birders in its black-and-white winter plumage, the Horned Grebe is more striking in its red-and-black breeding feathers. Its "horns" are yellowish patches of feathers behind its eyes that it can raise and lower at will.

Cool Facts

• Like most grebes, the small chicks of the Horned Grebe frequently ride on the backs of their swimming parents. The young ride between the wings on the parent's back, and may even go underwater with them during dives.
• The Horned Grebe regularly eats some of its own feathers, enough that its stomach usually contains a matted plug of them. This plug may function as a filter or may hold fish bones in the stomach until they can be digested. The parents even feed feathers to their chicks to get the plug started early.

• A sleeping or resting Horned Grebe puts its neck on its back with its head off to one side and facing forward. It keeps one foot tucked up under a wing and uses the other one to maneuver in the water. Having one foot up under a wing makes it float with one "high" side and one "low" side.

Description

• Size: 31-38 cm (12-15 in)
• Wingspan: 55-64 cm (22-25 in)
• Weight: 300-570 g (10.59-20.12 ounces)

• Small waterbird.
• Small head and bill.
• Bill short and thin.
• White cheek in winter.
• Reddish neck, black cheek, and yellow tuft behind eye in summer.

• Moderately long neck.
• Top of head flat in profile, with slight peak at rear.
• Bill straight, pointed, and with white tip.
• White wing patch inconspicuous in flight.
• Eyes red.

Breeding adult (Alternate Plumage): Bright patch of feathers behind eyes. Black, fan-shaped facial feathers. Lores, neck, breast, and flanks chestnut. Crown and back blackish. Belly dingy white.
Nonbreeding adult (Basic Plumage): Black-and-white overall. White cheeks extending backward to nape. Black line down back of neck. Crown dark. Lores whitish or gray. Whitish neck may be dusky at base.

Sex Differences

Sexes look alike.

Immature

Immature like winter adult.

Similar Species

• Eared Grebe has an all black neck and wispy yellow ear tufts in breeding plumage, darker face with white crescents at rear in winter. Its bill is thinner and appears slightly upturned. It has a steeper forehead peaking over the eye, and a steeper and more tufted rump. Molting Horned Grebe can have dusky cheeks and necks and look like Eared Grebe.
• Pied-billed Grebe has black band on bill, a thicker bill, and lacks white wing patches.
• Red-necked Grebe is larger, has a longer bill, and a dirtier face in winter.
• Ducks have flatter bills and do not sit so low in the water.

Sound

Calls a loud, nasal "aaarrrh" descending in pitch, and a pulsing trill. Usually silent in winter.

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds from central and western Alaska eastward to Manitoba, and southward to Oregon, northern Montana, northern South Dakota, and northwestern Minnesota. Also in Greenland and across northern Eurasia.

Winter Range

Winters mostly along coasts from Alaska and Nova Scotia southward to Mexico and Texas. Also on inland lakes and rivers. Also along European and Asian coasts.

Habitat

Breeds on small to moderate-sized, shallow freshwater ponds and marshes. Winters along coasts and on large bodies of water.

Food

Aquatic insects, fish, crustaceans, and other small aquatic animals.

Behavior

Foraging

Dives underwater for food, in open water and among aquatic vegetation. Picks insects off water surface.

Reproduction

Nest Type

An open bowl in a platform of floating vegetation or on a rock.

Egg Description

White to brownish or bluish green.

Clutch Size

3-8 eggs.

Condition at Hatching

Downy and active; can swim and dive within one day, but usually stay on nest platform.

Conservation Status

Common, but breeding range contracting and populations may be declining.

Other Names

Grèbe cornu, Grèbe esclavon (French)
Zambullidor cornudo, Zampullin cuellirrojo, Zampullin orejudo, Noveleta cuellirroja (Spanish)
Slavonian Grebe (English)

Sources used to construct this page:

Stedman, S. J. 2000. Horned Grebe (Podiceps auritus). In The Birds of North America, No. 505 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.