Great Crested Grebe
Podiceps cristatus(2 photos)
Great Crested Grebe
48-61 cm. Largest grebe. Fine sharp bill and slender, silvery white neck in all plumages. Breeding Plumage: chestnut and black neck-frill; white face; pointed black 'crests'. In autumn-winter, frill and 'crests' reduced. Juvenile: striped black and white head and neck. Immature: grey above, white face and slender neck without frill or crests. Pairs; autumn-winter companies on larger lakes, sheltered bays. Swims strongly, diving often; swift underwater. Flight low; neck low-hung; rapidly beating shallow-flickering wings show much white. In mating display sexes face up, shake heads, dive.
- Voice
- guttural 'kar-arr', shrill 'er-wick'; trumpeting, moaning, whirring noises.
- Habitat
- lakes, larger lagoons and swamps, reservoirs, floodwaters, bays, inlets.
- Breeding
- Aug.-Feb. in large, well-vegetated wetlands.
- Nest
- mass of water plants and mud, anchored or resting on submerged stump on bank, or on island. Sometimes loosely colonial.
- Eggs
- 3-5; glossy, green-white, limy and stained.
- Range & Status
- Aust. and Tas.: irregular through inland; rare tropical n. Aust. Also Eurasia, Africa (but not Indonesia, Borneo, PNG). Sedentary, nomadic.
- Distribution key to races
- 1. Podiceps cristatus australis
