The New Zealand Grebe is an endemic diving bird. In breeding plumage, the neck and breast become rich rufous red.
Its glossy brown-black head has fine silvery streaks, and its eyes are yellow. In breeding plumage the front of the neck and breast are rufous red; non-breeding adults are paler. The sexes look alike.
For a few weeks after hatching, chicks ride on a parent's back and are fed by both parents as they grow.
Pairs nest separately and may anchor the nest to aquatic vegetation. Both parents incubate 2–3 eggs for about 22–23 days. The bluish eggs become stained brown in the nest.
It mainly eats insects and their larvae, pecking them from the surface or catching them in the air. It also dives for small fish, crayfish, shellfish, and leeches.
Newly hatched chicks have heavy black-brown cross-stripes on white plumage and a red bill with black markings. Juveniles retain head and neck stripes, while the bill becomes black with age.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.