Eared Grebe Podiceps nigricollis Brehm       Field Guide IDs: NG-24; G-20; PE-34; PW-pl 1; AE-pl 183; AW-pl 180; AM(I)-44 Nest Location Nest Type Eggs & Mating System Dev. & Parental Care Primary & 2ndary Diet.. Foraging Strategy MF I: 20-22 DAYS PRECOCIAL 4 MF 3-5 (1-6) MONOG F: 21 DAYS MF FISH BREEDING: Marshes, ponds, lakes. Usu 1 brood, occ 2. DISPLAYS: Courtship and pair-bond maintenance: "penguin dance" with partners facing; stereotyped preening; "cat" attitude (elbows and crest raised) by one bird when partner approaches submerged. NEST: Floating platform in shallow water; of fresh and decayed veg, anchored in emergent veg. Build more than 1 nest. EGGS: Bluish-white, chalky, nest-stained buff or brown. 1.7" (43 mm). DIET: Mostly aquatic insects and larvae, also fish, crustaceans, mollusks, amphibians, feathers. CONSERVATION: Winters s to Guatemala. Milliners used feathers for hats, capes, and muffs. Eggs once taken for food. NOTES: Dense colonies in shallow water. Young hatch asynchronously; dive and hide, remaining submerged with bill exposed. Chicks ride and are fed on adults' backs. Young of several broods join to form creches. Mono Lake, CA and Great Salt Lake, UT serve as staging areas for fall migration; brine shrimp then comprise >90% of diet. Known in Europe as Black-necked Grebe. STANFORD. NOTES: ESSAYS: Eating Feathers; Visual Displays; Transporting Young; Plume Trade; Creches; Swimming; Eye Color; Precocial and Altricial Young. REFERENCES: Cramp and Simmons, 1977; Godfrey, 1986; Winkler and Cooper, 1986.