Grebes | Podicipediformes

Futen | Somormujos y zampullines

Grebes are diving birds with legs set far back on the body and toes edged with broad individual lobes rather than webbing; this makes them superb swimmers and divers but leaves them almost helpless on land. The bill is straight and pointed, built for seizing fish and aquatic insects, and the plumage is extremely dense and waterproof. The nest is a floating mound of waterweed anchored to shoreline vegetation, and the striped downy chicks are often carried and fed on a parent's back.

Families in this order

Grebes | Podicipedidae7 speciesTo dive, grebes first press the air out of their plumage and sink quietly away rather than plunging forward, a technique that makes their underwater swimming especially silent. Unusually, they continually swallow their own feathers, which form a plug in the stomach that catches sharp fish bones and parasites before they can pass further into the gut. When a parent temporarily leaves the nest, it first covers the eggs with wet waterweed, keeping them hidden from predators and preventing them from cooling. Courtship is elaborate, with paired birds running across the water in perfect synchrony, presenting each other with weed or water, or dancing breast to breast in an upright display.