[6] The genus contains five species:[7] A 2002 molecular phylogenetic study of the dippers looked at the DNA sequences of two mitochondrial genes.

While under water, they are covered by a thin, silvery film of air, due to small bubbles being trapped on the surface of the plumage.

They inhabit the banks of fast-moving upland rivers with cold, clear waters, though, outside the breeding season, they may visit lake shores and sea coasts.

They have evolved solid bones to reduce their buoyancy,[11] and their wings are relatively short but strongly muscled, enabling them to be used as flippers underwater.

[13] The high haemoglobin concentration in their blood gives them a capacity to store oxygen greater than that of other birds, allowing them to remain underwater for 30 seconds or more,[9] whilst their basal metabolic rate is approximately one-third slower than typical terrestrial passerines of similar mass.

[14] One small population wintering at a hot spring in Suntar-Khayata Mountains of Siberia feeds underwater when air temperatures drop below −55 °C (−67 °F).

[9] Dipper nests are usually large, round, domed structures made of moss, with an internal cup of grass and rootlets, and a side entrance hole.

[9] The maximum recorded age from ring-recovery data of a white-throated dipper is 10 years and 7 months for a bird ringed in Finland.

[18] The maximum age for an American dipper is 8 years and 1 month for a bird ringed and recovered in South Dakota.

In parts of Scotland and Germany, until the beginning of the 20th century, bounties were paid for killing dippers because of a misguided perception that they were detrimental to fish stocks through predation on the eggs and fry of salmonids.

The one exception, the rufous-throated dipper, is classified as vulnerable because of its small, fragmented and declining population which is threatened, especially in Argentina, by changes in river management.