Grebes | Podicipedidae

Futen | Somormujos

To dive, grebes first press the air out of their plumage and sink quietly away rather than plunging forward, a technique that makes their underwater swimming especially silent. Unusually, they continually swallow their own feathers, which form a plug in the stomach that catches sharp fish bones and parasites before they can pass further into the gut. When a parent temporarily leaves the nest, it first covers the eggs with wet waterweed, keeping them hidden from predators and preventing them from cooling. Courtship is elaborate, with paired birds running across the water in perfect synchrony, presenting each other with weed or water, or dancing breast to breast in an upright display.