Tachybaptus ruficollis - Little Grebe
Feather characters. Barbules are extremely short (0.52-0.62 mm). Pigment is lightly stippled, or absent. Borders between cells are visible, but hardly swollen and thus too small to qualify as nodes. These nodal structures (16-20 per mm) have about the same size along the entire length of the barbules, only slightly decreasing towards the tip. Villi are absent and internodes are straight. Prongs are present on various locations, always on distal end, but sometimes along the entire length of barbules. Generally they are unequally distributed and mostly present on one side of the pennulum. Their length varies, but they can reach a length between half and the entire length of the adjacent internode.
Field characters. Size 25-29 cm. Weight 201 g (91-242) (Dunning, 1993). Smallest of the grebes. With blunt-ended body, short neck, and short, relatively stout bill. In breeding plumage upperparts dark brown with chestnut throat, cheeks and foreneck. The base of the bill and gape bright yellowish green, forming distinctive light marks on otherwise dark head. Flanks dusky brown; underparts mixture of white and black-brown. In winter underparts much paler, with white chin and cheeks, throat and foreneck brown-buff. Juvenile with irregular white spots on sides of head. In flight with hardly any white on wings.
Voice. A loud, whinnying trill, also a short 'wit, wit'.
Distribution. Common resident. Secretive, probably nocturnal, migration occurs. Map: see MapIt.
Habitat. In breeding season broad spectrum of habitats: all sorts of still and slow-moving freshwaters with some cover in open country or in forests; also on canals, slow-moving rivers, deltas, and streams. Outside breeding season on more open and exposed inland waters, and on coasts and estuaries.
Food. Insects, molluscs, crustaceans, amphibian larvae, small fish. Obtains prey chiefly by diving (up to 1 m) but also snatches insects from the air or from the water surface.