Red-necked grebe

Voice

Noisy on the breeding grounds: a hard whinnying and wailing aa-ooh aa-ooh, running into a squealing shriek that cuts through the reeds. In the Netherlands this is rarely heard, as wintering birds are almost silent. April and May are the months, mostly at first light and after dark.

Identification

Smaller and more compact than Great Crested Grebe, with a heavy head and a short thick neck. In breeding plumage: black crown, strikingly pale grey cheeks and throat and a rust-red neck, with a black bill showing a bright yellow base. In winter it turns dusky, the dirty white cheek merging diffusely into the dark crown and the neck sides grey.

Confusion species

Great Crested Grebe is the only real pitfall. On Red-necked the black of the crown runs down below the eye with no sharp white division, the cheek is greyish rather than clean white, the neck is thicker and darker, and the bill base yellow instead of pink.

Habitat

Breeds on shallow, plant-rich lakes, old clay pits and infilling pools with dense fringing vegetation, usually smaller and more enclosed water than Great Crested Grebe chooses. Outside the breeding season it moves to the sea, to estuaries and to large inland lakes, diving for fish and crustaceans.

Range and movements

A breeder of eastern Europe, Scandinavia and Russia, reaching west to Denmark and Germany; in the Netherlands at most the odd pair nests each year. It winters along North Sea and Baltic coasts, regularly off the Dutch coast and on the IJsselmeer. In Spain it is a genuine rarity.

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

Where and when to look

Choose November to February and a day with offshore wind, then scope the surf and the first few hundred metres of sea from a groyne or pier. Early morning with the sun behind you, the heavy head and yellow bill base pick the bird out among Great Crested Grebes.

Conservation status

As a breeder in western Europe it is very scarce and sensitive to water-level management, bank disturbance and the loss of infilling fringes. Core populations in eastern Europe appear stable, but wintering birds face oil pollution, drowning in gill nets and disturbance at sea.