The Horned Grebe (Podiceps auritus) is a small, strikingly coloured waterbird — in breeding plumage it shows a black head with broad, golden-yellow tufts sweeping back from the eye, a chestnut neck and breast, and brilliant red eyes, making it one of the most beautiful birds on Sweden's mountain lakes. It measures 31–38 cm long, has a wingspan of 59–65 cm and weighs 300–600 grams. In winter plumage it turns sharply black-and-white, with a black crown and white cheek; the straight bill and the backward-pointing tuft separate it from the similar Black-necked Grebe, whose tuft instead points forward and upward.
Its call is a sharp, trilling "birr-birr" along with whining and creaking notes, heard mainly early in the season and in the morning near the breeding site. Horned Grebes build a floating nest of aquatic plants anchored among reeds, often in loose colonies or alongside other waterbirds; the female lays 3–5 eggs incubated by both parents, and the striped chicks can climb onto a parent's back within days of hatching for warmth and protection. They dive for aquatic insects, small fish and crustaceans in shallow water, and like other grebes even eat their own feathers, thought to protect the digestive system from sharp fish bones. Tied to small, nutrient-rich lakes mainly in northern Sweden, with scattered sites further south largely abandoned, the species numbers only 300–600 pairs and continues to decline, earning it a vulnerable listing both nationally and increasingly across its global range.
Read about this species in Swedish →