A small waterbird of lakes, ponds and slow rivers. It dives for fish and other prey and raises young on nests that appear to float.
It has a compact body and a pointed bill. Chicks have striped plumage.
Little Grebes often search for food in shallow water.
At Lake Tonga in northeast Algeria, a study examined nest sites and breeding outcomes over three breeding seasons from 2010 to 2012. Most nests were in shallow water near shore, yet nests farther out in deeper water tended to succeed more often. Overall nesting success was 60%. The authors described a trade-off: shallow water makes foraging easier, but it also brings greater nest-predation risk. Larger nests had higher success, while predation and adverse weather were the main recorded causes of nest failure. Predation and flooding varied markedly among years. In this lake, the shallow places that help a grebe find food and the deeper places that favour a successful nest offered different advantages.
IUCN Red List (BirdLife International) · Least Concern (LC) · Global
The 2019 IUCN global assessment lists the Little Grebe as Least Concern (LC) and records a decreasing global population trend, with the assessment dated 1 October 2016. BirdLife South Africa’s 2025 regional assessment also lists it as Least Concern, while reporting declines in distribution and waterbird survey records in southern Africa. Wetland degradation and transformation are identified as threats; the assessment proposes investigating the extent and causes of decline and conserving wetlands.