The Red-necked Grebe is a large, sturdy grebe, bigger and heavier-billed than the Horned or Pied-billed Grebes, with a long neck and a powerful, yellow-based bill. In breeding plumage it is handsome — a rusty-red neck, pale whitish cheeks, and a black cap — while in the nonbreeding season most Michigan sightings are of duskier gray birds on cold open water. It rides low, dives smoothly, and pursues fish and invertebrates beneath the surface, propelled by lobed toes.
Red-necked Grebes breed on marshy northern lakes and ponds, and Michigan lies near the southern edge of the nesting range, with a scattering of pairs on suitable wetlands. Far more birds pass through as migrants or gather on the Great Lakes and large inland lakes, where some remain through winter on open water. Their loud, braying courtship calls carry across northern marshes in spring, but in the state they are most often quiet birds of the big lakes in the cold months.
Dives to catch fish, its main food, along with aquatic insects, crustaceans, and other invertebrates, pursuing prey underwater with strokes of its lobed feet. Like other grebes it swallows some of its own feathers, thought to help protect and clean the stomach.
It is larger and thicker-necked, with a heavy, yellow-based bill. In breeding plumage the rusty neck and pale cheeks are distinctive; in winter it is a big, dusky-gray grebe, larger and longer-billed than the crisp black-and-white Horned Grebe.
A small number do, on marshy northern lakes and ponds near the southern edge of the species' range. Most birds in the state, though, are migrants or winter visitors on the Great Lakes and large inland lakes.
In migration and winter on the Great Lakes and big lakes, and in the breeding season on marshy northern wetlands where a few pairs nest. Some remain on open water through the cold months.
Juveniles have faintly striped faces and a grayish neck without the adult's chestnut, and winter adults are dull gray-brown too. The heavy yellowish bill works at any age and any season.
A raft. Big spring rafts occasionally form on the Great Lakes when ice conditions force birds to stage, which is when Michigan gets its best numbers.
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