From Opus

Podilymbus podiceps

Photo by raulqc.
Photographed: Green Cay, Florida, USA.

[edit] Identification

L. 30-38cm
Ws. 59cm

• Dark gray-brown above
• Paler gray-brown, tinged rufous, on breast and flanks
• Belly and fluffy undertail coverts white
• Head and hindneck dark gray-brown or blackish
  • Sides of head paler and tinged rufous
• Black chin and throat
• Short, thick bill
  • White with black central band

[edit] Distribution

United States, Canada, Mexico, the West Indies, Colombia, Venezuela, and Argentina.

[edit] Taxonomy

Three subspecies recognised varying slightly in colour of upperparts, overall size, bill size and extent of bill-band and chin patch. Nominate race occurs in North America and winters south to Panama and Cuba, antillarum breeds in the West Indies and antarcticus in South America.

[edit] Habitat

Freshwater, sometimes estuaries but very rarely on the sea.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Diet

Its diet includes small fish, frogs and tadpoles and aquatic invertebrates.

[edit] Breeding

It builds its nest as a heap of floating vegetation on edge of reedbeds or other marginal vegetation, sometimes on the bottom in shallow water. 4-7 whitish, tinged bluish or buff eggs are laid which are incubated by both sexes for 23-24 days. Young tended by both sexes. Single or double-brooded.

[edit] External Links