Podiceps major
Silhouette: Edwin Price · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The great grebe (Podiceps major) is the largest species of grebe in the world. A disjunct population exists in northwestern Peru, while the main distribution is from extreme southeastern Brazil to Patagonia and central Chile. The population from southern Chile is considered a separate subspecies, P. m. navasi.
The great grebe was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1781 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle, which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Colymbus major in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. Buffon mistakenly believed that his specimen had come from Cayenne in French Guiana. The great grebe is now placed in the genus Podiceps that was erected by the English naturalist John Latham in 1787.
Two subspecies are recognised: Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tierra del Fuego National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 2 | Península Valdés | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 3 | Nahuel Huapi National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 4 | Torres del Paine National Park | 🇨🇱 Chile | |
| 5 | Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park | 🇨🇱 Chile |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Montevideo | 🇺🇾 Uruguay | |
| 2 | Buenos Aires | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 3 | Lima | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 4 | São Paulo | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Cordoba | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 6 | Santiago | 🇨🇱 Chile |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Great Grebe sighting in São Paulo on a given day, based on 398 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 120th most-seen of the 353 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Great Grebe in São Paulo on a given day, against under 5% in June to April, the lowest months. That is one of São Paulo's driest months, with about 65 mm of rain against 230 mm in January.
Between 3 and 6 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Great Grebe sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
4th of 6
Of the 6 cities where we can rate Great Grebe sightings, São Paulo ranks 4th at under 5%. The best odds are in Montevideo (Uruguay, about 30%), Buenos Aires (Argentina, about 20%) and Lima (Peru, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Great Grebe is recorded against all the birds logged in São Paulo (398 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.
