Birdpass
English
Great Crested Grebe

Great Crested Grebe

Podiceps cristatus

Identify the Great Crested Grebe by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

  • Download on the App Store
  • Get it on Google Play

The Great Crested Grebe is the largest grebe of the Old World, an elegant waterbird with a long, slim neck, a double black crest and a chestnut ruff in the breeding season. It is famous for its ornate, synchronised courtship dances. It breeds on vegetated lakes across Europe and Asia, with related populations in Africa and Australasia, and in winter moves to large lakes, reservoirs and sheltered coasts.

Did you know?

  • Its striped chicks are nicknamed “humbugs”, after the striped sweets.
  • Hunting for its plumes in the 19th century helped inspire the first bird protection societies.

Voice

Song
Call

About the species

Identification

An elegant waterbird with a long neck and a sharp, straight, pinkish bill. In breeding plumage it has distinctive dark crests and a rufous-and-black ruff, which are lacking in winter; then it looks paler, with a white stripe above the eye below the black cap. The sexes look alike. It is larger than other grebes and has the showiest head ornaments in the breeding season.

Family

Podicipedidae

Size

Large (crow)

Colours

white, brown, grey, black

About the habitat

Medium to large freshwater lakes, ponds and sheltered bays with emergent vegetation for nesting; in winter also reservoirs and coastal waters.

Diet

Mainly small fish, as well as aquatic insects, crustaceans and occasionally frogs and newts.

Behaviour

An agile diver that chases fish underwater and often surfaces far from where it dived. Pairs perform elaborate displays, such as head-shaking and the “weed dance”, rising breast to breast with water plants in their bills. Both sexes build a floating nest among reeds and share incubation; the striped chicks often ride on a parent's back. Outside the breeding season it may gather in loose flocks.

Sources

Photo: JJ Harrison (https://www.jjharrison.com.au/), CC BY-SA 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Podiceps cristatus 2 - Lake Dulverton.jpg

Sound: Unknown authorUnknown author, CC BY 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Southern-crested-grebe-song.wav

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC925320, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/925320

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_crested_grebe

See also