Day 11 of January extinct birds - the Atitlán grebe or giant pie-billed grebe (i swear i posted this yesterday but apparently not)
This flightless grebe was endemic to a single lake in Guatemala. Their story is remarkably similar to yesterday's grebe - when carnivorous bass were introduced to the lake, eating the grebe's food and their chicks, numbers started declining steeply. A refuge was set up, which was quite successful, but the 1976 earthquake caused the population to fall again, and they went extinct around 1990.
This feisty little duck has been a local on my “Blackwater Ponds” for a few years. It’s actually not a duck but a Pie-billed Grebe, which size wise is between a robin and a crow.
Pie-billed grebe passing by a muskrat. (at Mason Neck State Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/CNNjZM-B8_6fjzlA7aGz6AtDzjtKbKbHLTX94k0/?igshid=1ijttw3yao70m
The most widespread grebe in the New World, and the most familiar in most temperate parts of North America. Far less sociable than most grebes, almost never in flocks, sometimes found singly on small marshy ponds. When disturbed or suspicious, it may sink slowly until only head is above water. Rarely seen in flight. Often secretive in the breeding season, hiding in marsh, making bizarre whinnying, gobbling, cooing noises by day or night...