Explore the vast range of titles available.

\"Meet the puteketeke. This bird rocks a spiky mohawk. It swims with its babies on its back. The animal eats its own feathers -- and then vomits them up to get rid of parasites! The puteketeke has dance moves too.\" (News-O-Matic) Read more about the puteketeke bird, also called an Australasian crested grebe.

Algeria hosts 55 Ramsar sites of international significance, serving as crucial habitats for a wide range of migratory, wintering, and breeding waterbird species. Despite this, research on the ectoparasites of aquatic avifauna in Algeria remains limited. This study aims to investigate the ectoparasite diversity infesting the Little Grebe ( Tachybaptus ruficollis Pallas, 1764) and the Great Crested Grebe ( Podiceps cristatus Linnaeus, 1758) in northeastern Algeria. To do so, we examined grebes of both species at Lake Tonga between 2022 and 2023. A total of 8,057 ectoparasites were collected, 24 of which belonged to Phthiraptera and 8,033 to Acari. Two lice species were identified: Aquanirmus podicipis Denny, 1842, belonging to the suborder Ischnocera, infesting the Great Crested Grebe and Pseudomenopon dolium Rudow, 1869, from the suborder Amblycera, infesting the Little Grebe. As for Acari, we identified two mite species belonging to the suborder Astigmata (Pterolichoidea; Ptiloxenidae): Ptiloxenus major Mégnin & Trouessart, 1884, and Ptiloxenus colymbi Canestrini, 1878 the latter of which had not been reported since its original description. This study reports a new host-parasite association in the global mite fauna (Great Crested Grebe - Ptiloxenus colymbi Canestrini, 1878). All the identified ectoparasite species are reported for the first time in Algeria. Feather mite infestation did not differ significantly between breeding and wintering seasons and showed only a weak correlation with host morphometric parameters. These findings suggest that neither season nor body size strongly influence feather mite dynamics in the studied grebes, while still providing valuable insights into their host-parasite relationships.

It is journal policy for The Auk: Ornithological Advances to use the Checklist of North American Birds for English-language bird names. Accordingly, Podiceps nigricollis californicus refers to the Eared Grebe throughout the article published on July 22, 2015, in The Auk 132(4):771–786, doi 10.1642/AUK-14-259.1.

We used biological and physical responses at 71 shallow waterbodies with contrasting nutrient levels undergoing recovery from eutrophication to predict potential changes in waterbird species abundance, an important component of lake ecosystems. These general predictions were tested using 28 years of breeding waterbird data from three Danish shallow eutrophic lakes, comparing species-specific responses to improved nutrient and water transparency in two lakes with a third where conditions remained constantly suitable for breeding waterbirds. We predicted positive responses to improved water quality from pursuit diving predators (three grebe species), a specialist zooplankton feeder (northern shoveler Anas clypeata ) and waterbirds feeding on (common pochard Aythya ferina ) or within (tufted duck A. fuligula ) submerged macrophyte underwater canopies. These species were characterised by positive waterbird community composition changes (using Principal Components Analysis) associated with decreasing nutrient loading and increasing water transparency at two lakes, with no change in breeding waterbird community at the third. Secchi depth explained 73–95% of variance in both PC axes at both restored lakes, but not at the third, suggesting water transparency was the major factor driving waterbird community composition. These examples show predicting waterbird species-specific responses to management can usefully direct the use of breeding waterbirds as indicator species.

Taolimiao‐Alashan Nur (T‐A Nur) is an important breeding site for the Relict Gulls (Larus relictus) and many other waterbirds. To understand the gut health status of rare bird species living there and to protect these bird species, this study analyzed the gut microbiota of four waterbird species, including Relict Gull (L. relictus), Black‐necked Grebe (Podiceps nigricollis), Greylag Goose (Anser anser), and Ruddy Shelduck (Tadorna ferruginea), using 16S rRNA high‐throughput sequencing. Results showed that the gut microbiota of Ruddy Shelduck had the highest α‐diversity, while Greylag Goose had the lowest. The composition of gut microbiota varied significantly among the bird species. The dominant bacterial phylum in the guts of Black‐necked Grebe, Greylag Goose, and Ruddy Shelduck was Firmicutes, while it was Pseudomonadota in Relict Gull. At the genus level, the dominant bacteria were Halomonas in Black‐necked Grebe, Escherichia‐Shigella in Relict Gull, Ligilactobacillus in Greylag Goose, and Enterococcus in Ruddy Shelduck. Correlation analysis revealed significant relationships among gut bacterial communities, suggesting that gut bacteria can regulate host metabolism and physiological state by their interactions. KEGG functional predictions indicated that gut microbiota were primarily involved in metabolism. The abundance of metabolism‐related microorganisms in Relict Gull was significantly lower than in Greylag Goose and Ruddy Shelduck, indicating that the gut microbiota of Greylag Goose and Ruddy Shelduck can provide stronger metabolic functions for the hosts. Additionally, microorganisms related to human diseases were more abundant in the gut of Relict Gull compared to Ruddy Shelduck and Black‐necked Grebe, and in Greylag Goose compared to Ruddy Shelduck. These findings suggested that the gut microbiota of birds in this area harbor some human pathogens, which warrants attention and preventive measures. This study analyzed the gut microbiota of four waterbird species including Relict Gull (Larus relictus), Black‐necked Grebe (Podiceps nigricollis), Greylag Goose (Anser anser), and Ruddy Shelduck (Tadorna ferruginea) using 16S rRNA high‐throughput sequencing in T‐A Nur in Erdos Relic Gull National Nature Reserve, Inner Mongolia, China to understand the survival status of rare bird species living there.

Eared grebes (Podiceps nigricollis) are colonial-nesting waterbirds that breed in Canada and northern United States. Great Salt Lake (GSL), Utah, is vital to the survival of this species because all eared grebes in North America stage in the fall either on the GSL or Mono Lake, California. The importance of GSL and its surrounding wetlands for breeding eared grebes is unknown. We studied eared grebe nesting status and chronology in the freshwater wetlands around GSL and found over 4,280 nests distributed among 35 colonies during 2018 and 5,794 nests among 23 colonies during 2019. We also located the 2 largest colonies of this species ever recorded (902 and 1,492 nests). Mean clutch size differed between years and was 2.4 eggs during 2018 and 2.0 during 2019; clutch sizes were lower at GSL than in colonies located in more northern latitudes, perhaps due to a local paucity of invertebrate prey during the egg-laying period. Grebe nests around the GSL were constructed with, and anchored to, growing Stuckenia pectinate. Eared grebes near GSL started laying eggs in the first week of June during 2018 and a week later during 2019. The number of incubated nests per colony peaked on 27 June during 2018 and 9 July during 2019. Nests continued to be incubated into August in both years. These dates are later than those reported in more-northern colonies. The later nesting in GSL colonies could be due to the birds’ need to wait for Stuckenia pectinata to form mats at the water surface. This plant species needs a water depth of 38 to 45 cm to thrive, and increasing amounts of freshwater from the GSL watershed are diverted for agriculture and human development. If this trend continues, there may not be enough water to maintain the required water depth for dense stands of Stuckenia; the loss of which may prevent the grebes from nesting.

A quantitative investigation examining the effect of changes in wetland habitat on reproductive output of Western and Clark's grebes (Aechmophorus occidentalis and A. clarkii, respectively) was conducted. Earlier studies examined local factors influencing nest success. This study supplements earlier work by seeking to determine which landscape-level habitat elements best predict annual landscape-level reproductive output of grebes. Western and Clark's grebes were monitored during the breeding season from 14 September 1998 to 20 September 2010 at Eagle Lake, California, USA. Remotely-sensed images were used to develop habitat indices and quantify changes in wetland availability and quality. The effect of these indices, and lake level, on annual reproductive output was analyzed using an information theoretic approach. Indices of habitat availability (βi = 0.20, 95% CI = 0.099–0.31) and habitat quality (βi = 0.28, 95% CI = 0.012–0.45) best predicted and had a positive effect on annual reproductive output. Lake level had little direct predictive power but was highly correlated with the other habitat covariates (Pearson's r > 0.80), indicating its importance as an indirect predictor of reproductive output. Thresholds of habitat availability and habitat quality were found, below which steep declines in reproductive output were observed.

A fishery for brine shrimp (Artemia franciscana) cysts to supply the aquaculture industry considerably expanded in the late 1980s in the Great Salt Lake, Utah, USA. With this expansion, concerns emerged in the 1990s about the fishery’s sustainability, especially its impact on the abundant western North American waterbirds that use the lake and feed on brine shrimp. We track the development of management strategies using adaptive management by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (UDWR), which focused on the biology of the system and development of biology-based harvesting models. The models and their rationale are presented, their success in forecasting is evaluated, and implications for managing the harvest and conserving waterbirds are examined. We view this as an interesting case study because it transpired over a short time in a relatively simple system. This permitted us to clearly track management from the onset of a harvest market, through realization that the harvest had to be managed in the absence of needed biological knowledge, to the adaptive development of management strategies as biological knowledge was accumulated. The outcome illustrates the success that harvest management can attain with careful monitoring of the resource and terminating the harvest when a necessary escapement stock is attained.