Little grebe

Voice

The song is a long, accelerating and descending whinny, a laughing whee-hee-hee-hee, often given in duet. There is also a sharp weet in alarm. Heard from March into July, strongest at first light, but also on mild winter days when the first territories are claimed.

Identification

Small, dumpy and short-billed, with a fluffy pale rear end that sticks up like a powder puff. Breeding birds are dark brown with a chestnut cheek and neck and a bright, obvious yellow-green spot at the gape. In winter far paler: warm buff flanks, brown upperparts and a vague pale throat, with the gape spot dull.

Confusion species

Only young Great Crested Grebes and small diving ducks mislead, but the Little Grebe is markedly smaller and shows no white wing patch at all in flight. From Black-necked and Slavonian Grebes it differs in the short, blunt bill, the brown rather than greyish tones and the striking pale stern.

Habitat

Small, shallow, sheltered waters: clay pits, moorland pools, ditches, town ponds, canals with reed fringes and slow streams. Nests on a floating platform tucked against overhanging bank vegetation. In winter it also uses larger, more open water, harbours and ice-free stretches of canals and rivers.

Range and movements

Widespread over almost all of Europe; in the Netherlands a common breeder of small waters that also uses canals and harbours in winter. Northern and eastern birds move away ahead of frost. In Spain it is present year-round on rivers, reservoirs and lagoons, up into the mountains.

• Resident
• Breeding (summer)
• Winter
• Passage
• dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

Where and when to look

Walk a reedy ditch or clay pit early on an April morning and simply stand still: the whinny will come. In a hard winter it pays to check ice-free spots in harbours and lock basins, where Little Grebes concentrate on the last open water.

Conservation status

Nationally stable to slightly increasing, benefiting from newly dug pools, nature-friendly banks and mild winters. Severe frost causes occasional heavy mortality. The main pressures are ditch clearance during the breeding season, disturbance by watersports and the removal of rank bankside vegetation.