by Nicholas Munday, Adelaide Urban Birding

Welcome to another installment in our series, What Bird is That?, where we explore the many birds that frequent your Adelaide Park Lands.

The subject of this article is a lesser-known but rather abundant species in certain parts of your Adelaide Park Lands: the Australasian Grebe (Tachybaptus novaehollandiae).

Small and duck-like in appearance (and sometimes mistaken for a duckling from a distance), this bird is much more unusual, paradoxically being highly nomadic and yet also acutely confined to fresh water. 

As such, it is nearly always found around relatively deep, still water, of which there are plenty of suitable examples in your Adelaide Park Lands.

Grebes belong to the order, Podicipediformes, from podiceps, which in Latin roughly means ‘rear-end feet’. All grebes have feet situated at the base of the body, giving them a somewhat ‘unbalanced’ profile. 

This extreme body arrangement means that grebes are all highly skilled swimmers and divers underwater, using their hindlimbs for propulsion. But this also renders them hopelessly clumsy on land, such that they can barely walk. 

Grebes can, however, fly, and fly well. Certain species may traverse great distances in search of suitable habitat. As such, these birds can be found over almost the entire continent, even in areas where standing water is extremely scarce, a testament to their ability to seek out water over vast stretches of dry country. 

These birds are also found across the ditch in New Zealand, as well as other parts of the Southern Pacific including New Guinea. Hence, they are called ‘Australasian’, rather than simply ‘Australian’, denoting their southern oceanian distribution.

Australia is home to three species of grebe, all of which may be found in your Adelaide Park Lands from time to time: the Australasian Grebe, which is a resident; the Hoary-headed Grebe (Poliocephalus poliocephalus), which is more seasonal; and occasionally the unmistakable Australasian Great Crested Grebe may be found as well (Podiceps cristatus ssp. australis). 

The Great Crested Grebe, or Pūteketeke, has a wide distribution across Australasia, Eurasia, and parts of Africa. It may be familiar to some as the winner of the 2023 New Zealand ‘Bird of the Century’ competition after being championed by British-American comedian John Oliver, overlooking New Zealand’s own endemic grebe, the New Zealand Dabchick (Poliocephalus rufopectus) — a cause of great frustration to some (including me).

While grebes are superficially similar to other waterbirds such as rails or waterfowl, their closest relatives are, in fact, flamingos — a surprising and counterintuitive association, but one which is supported by strong genetic evidence. 

When not in breeding plumage, the Australasian Grebe and the Hoary-Headed Grebe look extremely similar, both being small, rotund water birds that are often seen bobbing along the surface before dramatically diving back down again. 

During the breeding season over spring and summer, however, the contrast is dramatic: the feathers on the Australasian Grebe turn black and maroon, with a bright yellow spot at the base of the beak, whereas the Hoary-Headed Grebe develops a streaked crown of feathers that coat its entire head.

Grebes are famous for their elaborate mating rituals, where the partners of some species, including the Great Crested Grebe, perform delicate ‘water ballets’. The males and females move in synchrony, paddling rapidly so as to rise out of the water like a high-speed jet-boat. 

While the Australasian Grebe hasn’t perfected this, the monogamous pair bonds are obvious. Lone birds are almost never encountered, and where there is one grebe, there is almost always another nearby.

Australasian Grebes make nests of floating vegetation and may raise several broods over one season.  The parents are doting and dedicated, carrying the young on their backs until they can fend for themselves. 

Dependent on freshwater insects and insect larvae for food, the presence of grebes indicates a strong and healthy aquatic ecosystem.  It is humbling then to see these birds as residents in your Adelaide Park Lands, sometimes in great numbers, indicating the success of projects such as the Brownhill-Keswick Creek and First Creek stormwater projects.

Within Your Adelaide Park Lands, Australasian Grebes can be found regularly along the Torrens Lake (particularly near Parks 1 and 26), within the various lakes and wetlands at Park 11 in the Adelaide Botanic Garden, occasionally on the central lake at Rymill Park / Murlawirrapurka (Park 14), and often in large numbers at the Brown Hill-Keswick Creek wetlands at Victoria Park / Pakapakanthi (Park 16).

To find out about other birds in your Adelaide Park Lands, check out our What Bird is That? series.

Nicholas Munday is an environment and planning lawyer with degrees in law and science (evolutionary biology and ecology) from the University of Adelaide. 

He has a strong interest in biodiversity conservation and runs the ‘Adelaide Urban Birding’ Instagram account (@adelaideurbanbirding), dedicated to his photography of native birds in the Adelaide metropolitan area.

In his free time, Nicholas is well-known in the Adelaide choral music and theatre communities and also enjoys bushwalking, writing, and, of course, photography.  

The opinions expressed in this article are entirely those of the author. This author is not affiliated with the Adelaide Park Lands Association Inc.