Waterbirds · Netherlands
Little Grebe
Dodaars · Tachybaptus ruficollis
Through my lens
Small, round and hard to keep track of
Europe's smallest grebe sits on the water like a cork, a round little bird with almost no tail. In summer the neck turns rich chestnut and a yellow-green spot shows at the base of the bill. Winter birds are a plain buff-brown.
The Little Grebe, or Dabchick, likes ponds, ditches, canals and slow rivers with plenty of cover. It dives for small fish, insect larvae and snails, and it dives again when something startles it. Flying off is a last resort. More often it just vanishes and pops up somewhere in the reeds.
In spring you usually hear it first: a loud, whinnying trill. The nest is a floating heap of water plants tied to the vegetation.
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