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These elegant little grebes are best appreciated in their flashy breeding plumage, shown here. The two birds in the images above were photographed on a small pond on the 'Hydro road' near Churchill, Manitoba (above, left), and at Bolsa Chica wetlands in coastal Orange County in southern California (above right). We don't usually see breeding plumage on horned grebes in California, but this individual lingered later than usual in spring before moving north to nest. The rest of the images were of a breeding pair on a small 'kettle pond' near Wonder Lake in Denali National Park in Alaska. Although these grebes were still incubating eggs, they had already begun to lose the yellow 'horn' plumes and the dark cheek feathers seen in the upper right image. In winter, horned grebes are a more subdued black-gray-white combination without the nifty head plumes, as on this page. The eye remains blazing red throughout the year. |
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