Scientific name: Tachybaptus ruficollis (Pallas, 1764)
Bird group: Grebes
Field characters. 25-29 cm. Smallest of the grebes. With blunt-ended body, short neck, and short, relatively stout bill. In breeding plumage upperparts dark brown with chestnut throat, cheeks and foreneck. The base of the bill and gape bright yellowish green, forming distinctive light marks on otherwise dark head. Flanks dusky brown; underparts mixture of white and black-brown. In winter underparts much paler, with white chin and cheeks, throat and foreneck brown-buff. Juvenile with irregular white spots on sides of head. In flight with hardly any white on wings.
Voice. A loud, whinnying trill, also a short 'wit, wit'.
Distribution. Common resident. Secretive, probably nocturnal, migration occurs.
Habitat. In breeding season broad spectrum of habitats: all sorts of still and slow-moving freshwaters with some cover in open country or in forests; also on canals, slow-moving rivers, deltas, and streams. Outside breeding season on more open and exposed inland waters, and on coasts and estuaries.
Food. Insects, molluscs, crustaceans, amphibian larvae, small fish. Obtains prey chiefly by diving (up to 1 m) but also snatches insects from the air or from the water surface.
Eggs. Initially without markings, becoming stained light umber/very dark brow/red-brown during incubation. Ground colour white/cream. Texture dull and irregularly covered with chalk deposits. Shape long subelliptical/long oval. Size 38 x 26 mm (33-43 x 24-28), weight 14 g. Distinguishable from other species of Grebe by their small size.