It is the smallest grebe in Europe and can vanish underwater in an instant at any sign of danger.
From Little Grebe
It carries its chicks on its back through their first few weeks.
From Little Grebe
Its courtship call sounds like the whinny of a small horse.
From Little Grebe
It spends between nine and ten months a year without flying and is one of the least efficient fliers among birds; even so, on migration it covers up to 6,000 km.
From Black-necked Grebe
The parents carry the chicks on their back, between the wings, while the other member of the pair dives for food and passes it straight into their bill.
From Black-necked Grebe
Faced with a threat it does not take off: it slips under the surface with barely a ripple and comes up several metres away.
From Black-necked Grebe
Like all grebes, it swallows its own feathers and feeds them to its chicks: they form a mass in the stomach that wraps around fish bones and protects the digestive tract, and that is later brought up as pellets.
From Horned Grebe
Its nest is a floating platform anchored to the vegetation: it rises and falls with the water level, and at the first sign of danger the adults cover the eggs with wet vegetation before slipping underwater.
From Horned Grebe

Ecosystems