Red-necked grebes in Germany
© Edo van Uchelen/Minden Picture
You might be a red-necked grebe if…. Red-necked grebes
The red-necked grebe has a bit of a split personality—in fact, it only lives up to its name about half the year. Its feathers are not red but brambly brown and grey throughout the winter, when it lives a low-key, quiet life in saltwater along North American and European coasts. But just before it migrates to a northerly lake, pond, or swamp for breeding season, the plumage around the grebe's throat turns a distinctive rust-red. Both males and females undergo the plumage change.
This colourful phase lasts from May to November or so, during which the previously placid bird becomes given to loud calls and rambunctious mating displays. Maybe it's all in the family: Grebes are more closely related to flamboyant flamingos than to their fellow diving seabirds.
Related Images
Twin polar bear cubs asleep in a snow den in Wapusk National Park, Manitoba
A reddish egret hunts in Fort De Soto Park, Florida
Male Atlantic puffin gives his mate nesting material, Skomer Island, Wales
Great blue herons in the Wakodahatchee Wetlands, Delray Beach, Florida
Japanese crane in Hokkaido, Japan
Trumpeter swans at Kelly Warm Springs, near Kelly, Wyoming
Southern rockhopper penguins on the Falkland Islands
Grey-crowned cranes forming a heart shape
Bing Today Images
