Animalia Life

Podilymbus podiceps
TAXONOMY
Colymbus podiceps, Linnaeus, 1758, South Carolina. Three subspecies.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
French: Grиbe а bec bigarrй; German: Bindentaucher; Spanish: Zampullнn Picogrueso.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
12–15 in (30–38 cm); 0.6–1.3 lb (253–568 g). Adult breeding: above blackish, headside gray in contrast to black throat, sides of neck, breast, and sides of body grayish buff grading to mottled whitish and sooty gray on belly. Rump white. Bill short and thick, bluish white with distinct black vertical bar, eyes dark. Nonbreeding similar but throat pale, cheeks, neck, and flanks more buffy brown, bill usually fleshy pink without black bar. Immature: Head and neck boldly striped rufous, black and white, body rather uniform gray.
DISTRIBUTION
P. p. antillarum: Greater Antilles; P. p. podiceps: central Canada to Panama, in winter in southern part of range and Caribbean; P. p. antarcticus: eastern Panama and large parts of southern America.
HABITAT
Lakes, marshes, and ponds, usually with abundant reeds, floating and submergent vegetation and often with little open water.
BEHAVIOR
Alone, in pairs or family groups.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Eats a great variety of prey, but more than other grebes may take armored or spiny fish, crayfish, and crabs, the latter forming a substantial part of the diet in the Neotropics.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Courtship display poorly developed. Highly territorial. Eggs 2–10. Often double-brooded. Incubation period 21–27 days, shortest for last egg, fledging 35–37 days.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Not threatened and common over much of its range. Often killed on rainy nights during migration when they mistake wet asphalt roads and parking lots for ponds and dive in from some height.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
None known.

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