The Madagascar Grebe is a small diving bird endemic to Madagascar. In breeding plumage it has a black head and reddish-brown sides to the upper neck.
In breeding plumage, a black band runs from the crown to the hindneck, and the sides of the upper neck are reddish chestnut. The upperparts are brownish gray, the belly is white, and a white line shows behind the eye.
A 2024 study of lake systems in the Mahavavy-Kinkony Protected Area in western Madagascar recorded nesting and foraging in places with abundant water lilies. In that study area, its food consisted mainly of invertebrates such as insects.
It builds a floating plant platform, often well offshore among water lilies. The 3–4 eggs are pale blue or whitish and become stained by wet nest material.
It may gather in flocks outside the breeding season. When lakes dry out or shrink, it moves to other lakes, especially in the seasonally dry west.
Nonbreeding adults are paler, with a whiter foreneck and no chestnut on the neck sides. The bill is mainly yellowish, and juveniles have pale buff-white stripes on the head and neck.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.