Sungrebe

Sungrebes, when perching or on land, show boldly banded yellow and black legs and lobed feet. The body plumage is mostly varying shades of reddish brown. The head and neck are strikingly patterned with a black crown and nape and white stripes along the sides of its neck, as well as a white throat and chin. The long tail (almost a third of the total length) extends well beyond the body in flight, and sits fanned out on or just below the surface of the water while the bird swims.

Sungrebes are sexually dimorphic. The female is more brightly colored and, on average, slightly smaller but more powerfully built than the male. Females have a rufous patch on the side of the face that brightens to a cinnamon-orange color during the breeding season. During the breeding season, her eye ring becomes brighter in color and her lower mandible goes from dark red to bright scarlet. Females tend to have a body length of 27 cm (11 in), a wing length of 13.77 cm (5.42 in), and an average mass of 130–140 g (4.6–4.9 oz).

Males are similar to females, but with slightly drabber plumage; in particular the male lacks the bright eye ring and orange-rufous cheek patches that the female displays, and while his lower mandible turns from pale beige to dark red during the breeding season, it does not get as bright as that of the female. On average males tend toward a body length of 30 cm (12 in), a wing …

Sungrebes are found in heavily vegetated, mostly freshwater wetland environments, from northeast Mexico south along the Gulf and Caribbean coasts through Panama, where they live throughout the Canal Zone and Darien, and then along the Pacific coast from Panama through central Ecuador. They are also found throughout the Orinoco and Amazon Watershed, the Pantanal, and the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforests. Aside from Trinidad and Tobago, they are not found in the insular Caribbean, and seem to have difficulty dispersing over long distances of saltwater. Though occasionally recorded at higher elevations, the sungrebe is usually associated with lowlands from sea level to around 500 meters. They are residents throughout their range; they do not seem to migrate. Sungrebes seem to be expanding the northern limit of their range in northeastern Mexico. They were historically found no farther north than central Veracruz, but by the 1940s had established populations throughout Veracruz and into San Luis Potosí. They are now expanding their range further north in Tamaulipas, and an individual was sighted on 13 November 2008 on the Marsh Loop at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico, USA, the first historical record of sungrebes in the United States.

Sungrebes prefer quiet forest streams and rivers, freshwater ponds, and lakes with thick, overhanging vegetation. Here, they hunt snails and a variety of terrestrial and aquatic arthropods, as well as small fish, frogs and lizards. They will also eat some plant matter, including seeds and fruit. Most hunting and foraging takes place on or just above the surface of the water, although they may make short dives after fish and frogs, or hunt from low perches over the water. Sungrebes live at variable, but generally low population densities, and are generally solitary or found in pairs. They do not migrate seasonally, except to move out of drying habitats and into flooding ones within their range. It is not known how far juvenile sungrebes disperse after fledging, nor is it known if one sex preferentially disperses. It might be notable, however, that erratic sungrebes found outside of their known range have tended to be females. There is also no information on life span, age at first breeding, or mortality rates of the young.