The Titicaca flightless grebe occurs in a habitat mosaic in relatively shallow waters (up to about 10 m/35 ft deep).

As the grebe only eats prey smaller than some 15 cm (6 in), the adult pejerrey which are of commercial interest are not part of its diet as they are far too large.

Censuses in the latter part of the 20th century revealed that the population had declined from several thousand coincident with the introduction of monofilament line gill nets in the 1990s.

It was confirmed (Martinez et al. 2006) that the mortality of grebes drowning in these nets is considerable, killing potentially thousands of individuals each year in 2003.

Obviously, the 2001 survey which detected very low numbers was flawed for some reason and the species must be more common simply to sustain such losses.

Apart from drowning in gill nets, other threats are probably only relevant in the short run, locally, or if several should manifest simultaneously.

Overharvesting of reeds will also drive the birds from an area, but generally the threat of unsustainable use of totora is of less significance, at least in the short term.

It is notable that the species evolved on the lake and has sustained several periods of rather pronounced climate change in addition to the normal ENSO.

It apparently possesses a quite good capability to recover from population declines, which seems an adaptation to the fluctuating habitat availability even during periods of stable climate, as the lake routinely floods and recedes from considerable areas.

Apparently, population numbers reached a low point in 1999 due to a severe drought following the "mega-ENSO" of 1997/1998, and have somewhat recovered since then.

While the coarser gill nets used for fishing pejerrey are technically more of a threat to the sizable grebes than the finer ones preferred for Orestias, the latter will still catch and drown especially young and inexperienced birds, and probably even attract these due to holding their favorite food.