Podiceps auritus
Silhouette: Doug Backlund (photo), John E. McCormack, Michael G. Harvey, Brant C. Faircloth, Nicholas G. Crawford, Travis C. Glenn, Robb T. Brumfield & T. Michael Keesey · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
The horned grebe or Slavonian grebe (Podiceps auritus) is a relatively small and threatened species of waterbird in the family Podicipedidae. The Eurasian subspecies is distributed over most of northern Europe and northern Asia, breeding from Iceland east to the Russian Far East. The North American subspecies spans most of Canada and some of the United States. A small population was cited in Greenland in 1973, but is not mapped or further mentioned by subsequent authors.
The American name 'horned' refers to the orange-yellow crest feathers located above and behind the eyes, called "horns". The English name, originally 'Sclavonian', is first attested by George Montagu in his 1802 Ornithological Dictionary, from Scalovia, an old name for northern Prussia, referring to the species' main breeding area in Europe; the spelling was emended (without any reason given) to the current 'Slavonian' by Hartert in 1912.
The horned grebe was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seattle | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Vancouver | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 4 | Calgary | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 5 | Saint Petersburg | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 6 | Kazan | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 7 | Chicago | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Helsinki | 🇫🇮 Finland | |
| 9 | Baltimore | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Toronto | 🇨🇦 Canada |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Horned Grebe sighting in San Francisco on a given day, based on 8,779 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 95th most-seen of the 375 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
December to February
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Horned Grebe in San Francisco on a given day, against under 5% in April to October, the lowest months. Those are among San Francisco's wettest months, with about 100 mm of rain a month against almost none in July.
Between 4 and 7 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Horned Grebe sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 44 cities where we can rate Horned Grebe sightings, San Francisco ranks 2nd at about 10%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Seattle (United States, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Horned Grebe is recorded against all the birds logged in San Francisco (8,779 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
