Great Crested Grebe

The largest grebe found in Europe is easy to recognise because of its fancy breeding feathers. It has dark double head tufts and a chestnut and black ruff around its neck. In winter, it loses these showy feathers and looks white-necked with a dark cap just above its eyes. It has a long, thin pink bill and a white neck, which helps tell it apart from other grebes throughout the year. Its body shape is long and slim, and it sits low in the water. This bird is found widely across Britain and Ireland, living on bigger freshwater areas like reservoirs, gravel pits, and lakes that have plants growing around the edges. Some of these birds move to sheltered coastal waters during the winter. They need open water to dive in and plants that stick out of the water to help anchor their floating nests. The grebe is well known for its complex and synchronised courtship routines. These include shaking their heads and a notable 'penguin dance', where pairs rise up facing each other, chest to chest, out of the water. Their diet mainly consists of fish, which they catch by diving for up to thirty seconds at a time.