Western Bird Guide: Birds of the Rockies and West to the Pacific

by Charles K. Reed

HORNED GREBE.

3. Colymbus auritus. 14 inches.

In winter this Grebe is one of the plainest in its dress of gray and white, but summer brings a great change, making it one of the most attractive, with its black, puffy head, and buffy white ear tufts, the front of the neck a rich chestnut color. Their food consists almost wholly of small fish.

Nest.—Is a loosely built mass of vegetation floating in the bog and water holes of the western prairies. The eggs, 3 to 7 in number, are brownish yellow (1.70 × 1.15).

Range.—Breeds from Dakota and Illinois northward; winters to the Gulf of Mexico.