What Courtship Displays Are Performed By The Great Crested Grebe?
The crested grebe is one of the largest and most strikingly coloured of the grebes. It has a long and elaborate courtship. The displays are so complex they are often referred to as dances. Both sexes perform a series of displays, many of which are forms of normal behaviour that have been exaggerated and have become almost rituals. In the headshaking display, the two prospective partners face each other with their necks straight and their head feathers spread out. They then turn their heads rapidly from side to side. The display usually ends with ritual preening. The discovery dance involves one of the birds fluffing out its feathers and spreading it wings, while the other dives and rises erect from the water with its bill pointing downwards. Another, the retreat display, has one bird suddenly dashing away across the water and then turning to face its mate. By far the most complex is the weed dance in which both birds rear up from the water and face each other, breast to breast, with th
