Little grebe

Little Grebe
In breeding plumage
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Podicipediformes
Family:	Podicipedidae
Genus:	Tachybaptus
Species:	T. ruficollis
Binomial name
Tachybaptus ruficollis (Pallas, 1764)
Distribution of the Little Grebe.
Synonyms
Podiceps ruficollis

T. r. capensis with a juvenile in Krishna Wildlife Sanctuary, Andhra Pradesh, India.

The Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis), also known as Dabchick, is 23 to 29 cm in length. It is the smallest European member of the grebe family of water birds and is commonly found in open bodies of water across most of its range.

Description

T. r. capensis - Non-breeding plumage- preening after bath in an Indian Lotus Nelumbo nucifera Pond in Hyderabad, India.

Little Grebes swim together in Singanallur Lake Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu India.

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.

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 once 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.

• T. r. ruficollis is found from Europe and western Russia south to North Africa.
• T. r. iraquensis is found in southeastern Iraq and southwestern Iran.
• T. r. capensis is found in Sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, and the Indian subcontinent, extending east to Burma.
• T. r. poggei
• T. r. philippensis
• T. r. cotobato
• T. r. tricolor
• T. r. volcanorum
• T. r. collaris

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.

Behaviour

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. The young leave the nest and can swim soon after hatching, and chicks are often carried on the backs of the swimming adults.

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

External links

• BTO BirdFacts - Little Grebe
• Little Grebe videos, photos & sounds at the Internet Bird Collection
• Ageing and sexing (PDF) by Javier Blasco-Zumeta
• Grebes of the World by André Konter