Podiceps major
Silhouette: Edwin Price · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
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 |
Likely
About 60% of wildlife watchers report a Great Grebe sighting in Península Valdés on a given day, based on 319 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 12th most-seen of the 96 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
December
In that month about 70% of wildlife watchers report a Great Grebe in Península Valdés on a given day, against about 40% in August and October, the lowest months. June and July have too few records to rate.
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.
Among the best
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Great Grebe sightings, Península Valdés ranks 2nd at about 60%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Tierra del Fuego National Park (Argentina, about 60%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Great Grebe is recorded against all the birds logged in Península Valdés (319 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
