Grebe This is a swimming bird that lives near quiet waters in most parts of the world. Grebes resemble the related loon and the unrelated duck; their wings are short , vestigial , and long, individually webbed toes on the feet that are set far back on a short stubby body .

As they swim their body floats lower in the water than ducks , and if they see danger they sink lower and then submerge, this practice has given them the name hell diver. In the air they are not very good fliers and are awkward on land; their nests and are hidden in the rushes where there are loosely constructed of reeds and weeds.

When they leave the nest they cover their eggs with refuse and some carry their young on their backs. Grebes during courtship have complex rituals , which includes dancing in pairs on the water. Their diet consists of the fish, aquatic insects, crustaceans and plants. Among birds there is this unexplained habit of swallowing feathers . The best known representative in the Western Hemisphere is the pied-billed grebe, locally called dabchick , water witch . Other Grebes at in North America include holboell's grebes, and the eared and horned grebes of North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Flightless species of grebes in South America were formally hunted for their silky breast feathers.

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