Clark's Grebe

Clark's grebe closely resembles the western grebe and occurs in the same colonies together with it. Storer and Nuechterlein in 1992, following earlier morphological studies by Storer and others, define the species as being distinguished from the western grebe by an overall paler plumage on its back, as well as a larger portion of its face covered in white, as it extends above the eyes, rather than just below them. A distinguishing feature is its bill, which is bright yellow in the US, whereas the Western Grebe's bill is greenish-yellow in the US, which had been noted by others. Voice: The calls of Clark's grebe are similar to its western counterpart, however, during courtship the birds make an 'advertising call' to attract mates—this sounds like a single, extended kreeeed as opposed to the two-note kreed-kreet of the western grebe. The calls of the grebe tend to vary very little between sexes.