Podiceps major
Silhouette: Edwin Price · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~80%
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 |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Great Grebe sighting in Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park on a given day, based on 81 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 31st most-seen of the 70 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Great Grebe in Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park on a given day, against about 10% in June, September and November–January, the lowest months. That is one of Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park's wettest months, with about 410 mm of rain against 85 mm in February.
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.
5th of 5
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Great Grebe sightings, Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park ranks 5th at about 20%. The best odds are in Tierra del Fuego National Park (Argentina, about 60%), Península Valdés (Argentina, about 60%) and Nahuel Huapi National Park (Argentina, about 40%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Great Grebe is recorded against all the birds logged in Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park (81 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.
