The Australasian Grebe is a small waterbird whose breeding plumage has a glossy black head and chestnut facial stripe. It dives for small fish and aquatic insects.
During breeding, both sexes have a glossy black head and a rich chestnut stripe running from behind the eye toward the base of the neck. Outside breeding, they are dark gray-brown above and mostly silver-gray below.
It catches small fish and aquatic insects, usually during deep dives. Adults also swallow their own feathers and feed them to young; this is thought to help prevent injury from swallowed fish bones.
In Australia, it builds a floating mound of vegetation anchored to a submerged branch or emergent plant. It lays 4–5 pale blue eggs. Striped chicks can swim from birth and are cared for by both parents.
In Australia, it may raise up to 3 successive broods in a season. When the parents begin breeding again, they drive away the young from the previous brood.
In Australian breeding plumage, both sexes have glossy black heads and darker eyes. The bare patch at the bill base becomes pale yellow and more conspicuous than the white patch in nonbreeding plumage.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.