The Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis),called Smådopping in Skåne, also known as dabchick, is a member of the grebe family of water birds. The genus name is from Ancient Greek takhus "fast" and bapto "to sink under". The specific ruficollis is from Latin rufus "red" and Modern Latin -collis, "-necked", itself derived from Latin collum "neck".
At 23 to 29 cm in length it is the smallest European member of its family. It is commonly found in open bodies of water across most of its range.
Distribution This bird breeds in small colonies in heavily vegetated areas of freshwater lakes across Europe, much of Asia down to New Guinea, and most of Africa. Most birds move to more open or coastal waters in winter, but it is only migratory in those parts of its range where the waters freeze. Outside of breeding season, it moves into more open water, occasionally even appearing on the coast in small bays
Taxonomy The Little Grebe was described by the German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas in 1764 and given the binomial name Colymbus ruficollis. The tricolored grebe was considered conpecific, with some taxonomic authorities still considering it so. There are six currently-recognized subspecies, separated principally by size and colouration.
• T. r. ruficollis – (Pallas, 1764): nominate, found from Europe and western Russia south to North Africa
• T. r. iraquensis – (Ticehurst, 1923): found in southeastern Iraq and southwestern Iran
• T. r. capensis – (Salvadori, 1884): found in Sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, and the Indian subcontinent, extending east to Burma
• T. r. poggei – (Reichenow, 1902): found from southeastern to northeastern Asia, Hainan, Taiwan, Japan, and south Kuril Islands
• T. r. philippensis – (Bonnaterre, 1790): found in the northern Philippines
• T. r. cotabato – (Rand, 1948): found on Mindanao
Description The Little Grebe is a small water bird with a pointed bill. The adult is unmistakable in summer, predominantly dark above with its rich, rufous colour neck, cheeks and flanks, and bright yellow gape. The rufous is replaced by a dirty brownish grey in non-breeding and juvenile birds.
Juvenile birds have a yellow bill with a small black tip, and black and white streaks on the cheeks and sides of the neck as seen below. This yellow bill darkens as the juveniles age, eventually turning black in adulthood.
Breeding plumage
In winter, its size, buff plumage, with a darker back and cap, and “powder puff” rear end enable easy identification of this species. The Little Grebe's breeding call, given singly or in duet, is a trilled repeated weet-weet-weet or wee-wee-wee which sounds like a horse whinnying.
Behaviour The Little Grebe is an excellent swimmer and diver and pursues its fish and aquatic invertebrate prey underwater. It uses the vegetation skilfully as a hiding place.
Like all grebes, it nests at the water's edge, since its legs are set very far back and it cannot walk well. Usually four to seven eggs are laid. When the adult bird leaves the nest it usually takes care to cover the eggs with weeds. This makes it less likely to be detected by predators.
Little Grebe in nest - Laying eggs?
Praek Nam Daeng, Samut Songkhram, Thailand - May 2020
Little Grebe with nest
Praek Nam Daeng, Samut Songkhram, Thailand - May 2020
The young leave the nest and can swim soon after hatching, and chicks are often carried on the backs of the swimming adults. In India, the species breeds during the rainy season.
It does not normally interbreed with the larger grebes in the Old World, but a bird in Cornwall mated with a vagrant North American pied-billed grebe, producing hybrid young.
Little Grebe babies
Praek Nam Daeng, Samut Songkhram, Thailand - May 2020
Little Grebe baby
Little Grebe baby
Little Grebe baby
Little Grebe baby with a proud PAPA or MAMA
Little Grebe baby
Little Grebe baby with a proud PAPA or MAMA
Little Grebe baby
Little Grebe baby
The below sound is a recording of the 2 baby Little Grebes on the pictures above playing and chasing each other
Sighted: (Date of first photo that I could use)
29th of January 2016 Location: Kanha Tiger Reserve, India
PLEASE! As I'm a first time birdwatcher bear in mind that some of the bird can be wrongly named. I have bought books and I confirm on the internet to get the right identity on the birds I take pictures off. But there can still be mistakes.
I have had most help from my friend, the bird pal I met at Suan Rot Fai. Sending pictures of birds I have not been able to identify to him via Line. 3 minutes later he and he have managed to identify most of the birds I have had problems with. THANKS! Visit his web pagem☥leverfor his beautiful pictures.
And my new aid, maybe, and I say maybe the best aid. I brought my mobile phone as my SIM card have stopped working and I tried to get it to work again so I can use the internet. Thus I had my phone in my pocket on my first game drive in Jim Corbett National Park.
We saw a bird and I asked my Guide and the driver if they had a pen and a paper as I had forgot my pen and paper in my room. I remembered my LG phone and I recorded the name. And thus I will always bring my phone. Writing the name in the car and I have found more than once that it can be hard to read what I had wrote when I'm back in my room.
So now I always have my mobile in my pocket and it has been a great help. And from November 2018 I use eBird. Bird watching in U.A.E and Oman and my guide in Dubai recommended eBird and I have used the app since then and I note every bird I can identify in my eBird app.
Little Grebe - 29 January 2016 - Kanha Tiger Reserve
Little Grebe - 29 January 2016 - Kanha Tiger Reserve
Little Grebe - 29 January 2016 - Kanha Tiger Reserve
PLEASE! If I have made any mistakes identifying any bird, PLEASE let me know on my guestbook
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