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Clark's Grebe | Aechmophorus clarkii
Clarks fuut | Achichilique pico naranja
Clark's Grebe is a large black-and-white grebe with a long, slender neck and a bright yellow to orange-yellow bill. On the lakes of the Mexican plateau it is the more widespread of the two Aechmophorus grebes, with a resident subspecies of its own, A. c. transitionalis; in winter birds from North America join them along the coasts of Baja California. It was long regarded as a pale form of Western Grebe.
Voice
A loud, rasping, usually single and rising krrreek, mainly in the breeding season and in flocks; sometimes also heard in winter.
Recording: Paul Marvin — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
56–74 cm, slender, with a long neck, an elongated head and a long, straight, dagger-shaped bill. Upperparts, crown and hindneck blackish-grey, throat, foreneck and underparts white; the flanks are pale grey and often spotted white. In breeding plumage the black cap stays above the eye, so that the red eye sits in the white. The bill is bright yellow to orange-yellow. In winter plumage the lores become greyer and the black sometimes reaches the eye. In flight a broad white wing stripe across the secondaries and inner primaries. Birds of the plateau are smaller than the North American winter visitors.
Confusion species
Western Grebe Aechmophorus occidentalis has a dull greenish-yellow bill, a black cap enclosing the eye, darker grey flanks and, in flight, less white in the wing; in winter plumage bill colour is the best feature. Intermediates occur. Common Loon Gavia immer has a thicker, shorter neck, a dark eye and a heavy grey bill.
Habitat
Large, shallow freshwater lakes and reservoirs with reedbeds or other fringing vegetation, also slightly brackish lakes on the plateau; in winter also sheltered coastal bays, lagoons and shallow sea close to the coast. It eats mainly fish, caught by diving and spearing with the bill. The nest is a floating heap of plant material, often in colonies.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Resident on lakes of the Mexican plateau, from Chihuahua and Durango through Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Guanajuato, Michoacán, the State of México, Hidalgo and Puebla south to Oaxaca (A. c. transitionalis). In winter also along the coasts of Baja California and in the Gulf of California, in Baja California, Baja California Sur and Sonora (A. c. clarkii). Not recorded in Central America. Outside the guide area it breeds in the western United States and locally in south-western Canada.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
All year on large lakes and reservoirs of the plateau, such as Lake Chapala in Jalisco and Lake Cuitzeo in Michoacán. In winter along the coast of Baja California often together with Western Grebe; the bright bill colour then stands out even at a distance.
Conservation status
Not threatened. The plateau lakes are under pressure from water abstraction, silting up and pollution, and in North America disturbance of colonies, fluctuating water levels and oil pollution are threats.
Scientific name
Aechmophorus clarkii | (Lawrence, 1858)
Lawrence described the species in 1858 as Podiceps clarkii; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Aechmophorus was introduced in 1862 by Coues. Aechmophorus is Greek, from aikhmē 'spear' and -phoros 'bearing': 'spear-bearer', after the long, dagger-like bill. clarkii honours the American surveyor and naturalist John Henry Clark (1830–1885), who collected it during the Mexican Boundary Survey. The specimen the first description was based on came from Laguna Santa María, Chihuahua, Mexico.