Friday's Foto

The petite Horned Grebe is an annual Winter visitor to coastal Brooklyn and New York City. The descriptor "horned" refers to the yellowish, gold plumes this birds sports behind his eyes when in breeding plumage. Their breeding range is from Alaska and northern Canada, South, through the Canadian prairie provinces to Washington, Montana, South Dakota and Wisconsin where they construct floating nests on freshwater marshes and lakes. In Winter plumage the Horned Grebe is very similar to the Eared Grebe, although the later is rarely seen around coastal New York. Here's a good piece on how to separate them.