Birds

Grebe

Podicipedidae · also called grebes, dabchick, hell-diver

Least Concern ↓ carnivore Rivers & wetlands Coasts & shorelines Ocean

A grebe is a bird that has given itself over completely to the water. Its legs are set so far back that it swims like a torpedo but cannot walk a step, so it nests, rests, and sleeps afloat. It courts with astonishing dances — two birds rearing up breast to breast, or sprinting side by side across the surface — and it eats its own feathers.

Overview

Grebes are the family Podicipedidae, about 22 species, on every continent except Antarctica, on lakes, ponds, marshes, and sheltered coasts. They are fish and invertebrate hunters that pursue prey underwater, propelled by feet with lobed toes rather than webs. Despite resembling a loon and behaving like a diving duck, their closest living relatives are the flamingos.

Feathers in the stomach

Grebes deliberately swallow large numbers of their own body feathers and feed them to their chicks, forming a plug that seems to slow digestion so fish bones dissolve rather than piercing the gut. The used plug is coughed up as a pellet.

The dances

Grebe courtship is elaborate choreography: the great crested grebe’s weed dance (both birds rise breast to breast with beakfuls of waterweed), and the western grebe’s rushing ceremony (a pair sprinting upright across the water for 10–20 m). Chicks ride on a parent’s back, even when the parent dives.

Status

Most species are Least Concern, but grebes are unusually extinction-prone: the Atitlan and Colombian grebes were lost in the 20th century to introduced fish and habitat change, and the flightless Junin and Titicaca grebes, each on a single lake, are Critically Endangered and Endangered.

Grebe: common questions

What is the difference between a grebe and a loon?

They look and behave alike because both are diving birds with legs set at the back of the body, but they are not closely related and differ in several ways. A grebe is generally smaller and slimmer, with a thin pointed bill, lobed rather than webbed toes, often ornate head plumes and ruffs in the breeding season, and it builds a floating nest anchored to plants. A loon is larger, heavier, and thicker-necked, with a straight dagger bill, fully webbed feet, bold black-and-white breeding plumage, a wailing voice, and it is confined to the Northern Hemisphere. Grebes also eat their own feathers, which loons do not. In the bird family tree, grebes are closest to flamingos, while loons sit on their own branch.

Why do grebes eat feathers?

It is a genuine, deliberate behaviour, not accidental preening loss. A grebe stomach often contains a wad of dozens to hundreds of feathers, mostly small body feathers the bird plucks from its own flanks, and adults feed feathers to their chicks from the first days of life. The best-supported explanation is digestive. Grebes eat a lot of fish, and the feather mass in the stomach acts as a filter and a cushion, holding fish bones and other sharp fragments in the stomach until stomach acid has broken them down, rather than letting them pass quickly into the intestine where they could cause damage. The bird periodically regurgitates the used feather plug, complete with bone residue, as a pellet, and swallows a fresh batch.

What is the grebe courtship dance?

Grebes have some of the most elaborate courtship displays of any birds, and different species have their own routines. The great crested grebe, studied by the biologist Julian Huxley in a famous 1914 paper that helped launch the study of animal behaviour, performs a head-shaking ceremony and a weed dance, where both birds dive, collect waterweed in their bills, then rear up out of the water breast to breast and tread water while swinging the weed from side to side. The western and Clark's grebes of North America do the rushing ceremony, in which two or more birds suddenly rise onto the surface and run across the water side by side in a stiff upright posture for 10 to 20 metres before diving back in. These displays synchronise the pair and reinforce the bond.

Can grebes fly, and why can't they walk?

Most grebes can fly, though many are reluctant to and do so mainly on migration, often at night, and they need a long pattering run across the water to take off because their wings are small for their weight. A handful of species, the Titicaca grebe, the Junin grebe, and the extinct Atitlan grebe, are or were flightless, confined to a single lake. Walking is a different problem. The legs are positioned so far back on the body, which is ideal for pushing the bird through water, that the grebe cannot balance on them on land or bring them forward to step, so a grebe out of water can only push itself along on its belly. This is why grebes do everything, including sleeping and nesting, on or over the water.

Sources & further reading

Written by HideShark Editorial Team · reviewed by HideShark Science Desk. Published September 11, 2026. Last updated September 11, 2026.

Quick facts

Scientific name: Podicipedidae
Diet: Mostly fish caught in underwater pursuit, along with aquatic insects and their larvae, crustaceans, molluscs, tadpoles, and small amphibians, with the smaller grebes taking more invertebrates and the larger species more fish
Lobed toes, not webs: A grebe does not have the fully webbed foot of a duck but instead has broad, stiff, independently movable flaps of skin along each toe, which fold on the forward stroke and spread on the backward stroke, an efficient paddle also seen in coots and phalaropes but nowhere else quite like this
Legs at the back: The legs are placed so far to the rear that they act as a rear propeller and rudder underwater but leave the bird unable to stand or walk, so a grebe on land can only shuffle, and it nests, rests, and even sleeps on the water, floating with the head tucked into the back feathers
They eat feathers: Grebes deliberately swallow large numbers of their own body feathers, and feed feathers to their chicks, forming a soft plug in the stomach, and the leading explanation is that the feather mass slows the passage of food so that sharp fish bones are broken down and dissolved rather than piercing the gut, with the plug periodically coughed up as a pellet
Courtship as choreography: Grebe pairs perform intricate synchronised displays, from the great crested grebe's weed dance, in which both birds dive, surface with a beakful of waterweed, and rise breast to breast paddling furiously, to the western and Clark's grebes' rushing ceremony, in which the pair sprint side by side across the surface in an upright posture for many metres
Chicks ride, even underwater: Newly hatched grebe chicks, striped like humbugs, climb onto a parent's back and ride there tucked among the feathers, and a carrying parent will dive with the chicks clinging on, surfacing with them still aboard, which keeps the young warm and safe from pike and large fish below
Not related to loons or ducks: Despite looking like a small loon and behaving like a diving duck, the grebes are not closely related to either, and DNA has placed their nearest living relatives as the flamingos, a pairing that surprised ornithologists and is supported by shared feather lice and other evidence
Range: Every continent except Antarctica, breeding on freshwater lakes, ponds, marshes, and slow rivers with emergent vegetation, and many species moving to larger lakes, reservoirs, estuaries, and sheltered coasts in winter, from the tropics to the subarctic, with a few species such as the Titicaca and Junin grebes flightless and restricted to one high-altitude lake each.
Conservation status: Least Concern ↓ ≈ Most of the roughly 22 grebe species are widespread and assessed as Least Concern, including the familiar little grebe, great crested grebe, and pied-billed grebe, though several are declining through the drainage and pollution of wetlands, disturbance by boats, and predation by introduced fish and mammals. Grebes have proved unusually extinction-prone among birds, with the Atitlan grebe of Guatemala and the Colombian grebe both lost in the 20th century, largely to introduced bass and habitat change, and the Junin grebe of Peru and the Titicaca grebe, both flightless and confined to a single lake, now Critically Endangered and Endangered respectively in the wild