In the winter months they are usually found in southern North America in lakes, ponds, rivers or bays.

The nest is bowl-shaped, built on water in dense emergent vegetation with sedges and woody plants.

As they mature they tend change their diet to submerged plants such as pondweed and coontail, and emergents such as annual wild rice and snails.

In Britain, occasional small flocks occur, including five at Loch Leven, Scotland in September 2003[9] and four at Standlake in Oxfordshire in April 2015.

Vagrant individuals also occur each year in Central America as far south as Costa Rica between October/November and May/June.