During the breeding season, it acquires the distinctive red neck plumage, black cap and contrasting pale grey face from which its name was derived.

The red-necked grebe was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1781 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux.

[2] 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.

[6][7] The genus name Podiceps comes from Latin podicis, "vent" or "anus", and pes, "foot", and is a reference to the placement of a grebe's legs towards the rear of its body.

[10] It is possible that the red-necked grebe originally evolved in North America and later spread to Europe, where a change of diet to include more insects helped to reduce competition with its larger cousin.

[16] It is closer in size to the Eurasian great crested grebe, but that species is longer-necked, has a more contrasting head pattern, and always shows white above the eye.

[20] Like all grebes, the red-necked is an expert swimmer; it uses its feet for propulsion underwater, and steers by rotating its legs, since its tail is too short for this purpose.

It has a loud, wailing or howling display call uooooh, given by a single bird or a pair in duet, by night or during the day, and often from cover.

The red-necked grebe shows a preference for waters in forested areas or, further north, in shrub tundra, and favours sites with abundant emergent vegetation, such as reedbeds.

[11] All populations are migratory and winter mainly at sea, usually in estuaries and bays, but often well offshore where fish are within diving reach near shallow banks or islands.

[27] The preferred passage and wintering habitat is water less than 15 m (49 ft) deep with a sand or gravel bottom, scattered rocks and patches of seaweed.

[29] During winter, birds typically feed alone and rarely aggregate into flocks, but on migration, concentrations of over 2000 individuals may occur at favoured staging sites.

[31] P. g. holbolii breeds in North America in Alaska, western and central Canada, and the northern US east to Minnesota; in Asia it nests in eastern Siberia from Kamchatka south to Hokkaido and west to Mongolia.

Such sites, safe from most predators and large enough to provide some wind and wave protection, have grebes nesting much closer than shoreline breeders, down to 10 m (33 ft).

It is unclear whether this is for self-protection or to protect the eggs by diverting attention from the nest; the clutch does not appear to suffer from this temporary abandonment, whatever the reason.

[17] Eggs may be destroyed and chicks killed by a range of predators, including the raccoon in North America and the carrion crow in Europe.

[11] On the breeding grounds, the red-necked grebe feeds mainly on invertebrates including adult and larval aquatic insects, such as water beetles and dragonfly larvae, crayfish and molluscs.

[29] Aquatic prey is obtained by diving or by swimming on surface with the head submerged, and terrestrial insects and their larvae are picked off vegetation.

[17] A line slanting downward from the eye to the tip of the opened lower mandible may be used for sighting on prey before diving or when swimming under water.

[11] Birds of the nominate subspecies from the northernmost breeding populations in Finland and Russia, beyond the range of great crested grebe, have a longer and more slender bill than those further south, reflecting a greater proportion of fish in the diet where their main competitor is absent.

[50] The function of the feathers in the stomach is unknown, although it has been suggested that they help to protect the lower digestive tract from bones and other hard, indigestible material.

The plan is intended to address key issues such as species and habitat conservation, management of human activities, research, education, and implementation.

[1][44] In North America, there are potential threats from pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and pesticides such as DDT which cause reduced reproductive success due to egg sterility and eggshell thinning.