Black-necked Grebe

The black-necked grebe measures 28–34 centimetres, with a wingspan of 56–60 centimetres in the nominate subspecies and 52–55 in the American californicus, and weighs 215–450 grams, males on average heavier. In breeding plumage a distinctive fan of ochre feathers extends behind the eye over the ear coverts, while the head, neck, breast and upperparts are black to blackish brown, the flanks tawny rufous to maroon-chestnut and the abdomen white. In non-breeding plumage the upperparts, crown, a stripe down the neck and the flanks are greyish-black and the rest white. (Wikipedia, general species account)

Also known as the eared grebe, it is a member of the grebe family of water birds, described by Christian Ludwig Brehm in 1831. Three subspecies are accepted. It is closely related to the South American silvery grebe and Junin grebe and to the extinct Colombian grebe, which is genetically nested within it and often treated as a subspecies; californicus is more closely related to that extinct form than to the nominate subspecies. (Wikipedia, general species account)