grebe

Everyday

A diving water bird with lobed toes and a sharp beak, found on lakes and rivers; the great crested grebe has fancy head feathers. tree →

In the lessons

A nature word for river and lake birds in the UK, Ireland, North America, Australia and New Zealand. Great crested grebes are famous for their courtship «dance», in which the pair rise up breast to breast and shake their heads. Birds like grebes, coots and moorhens live on the river bank of The Wind in the Willows.

Examples

• A great crested grebe dived under the water and came up with a fish. tree →
• Grebes carry their chicks on their backs. tree →
• We watched two grebes doing their courtship dance. tree →
• The little grebe is also called a dabchick. tree →
• Grebes build floating nests of reeds. tree →
• There were ducks, coots and a grebe on the lake. tree →

Note

Countable: a grebe, grebes. Pronounced GREEB. Grebes are not ducks: their feet have lobes, not webs, and they rarely walk on land. A young great crested grebe has a striped head.