Horned Grebe

About the Horned Grebe

The Horned Grebe is the sharpest-dressed diver on a Texas winter lake even without its horns: crisp black-and-white in winter plumage, with a flat dark cap, snowy cheeks, and a scarlet eye set like a jewel. The golden "horns" -- feather tufts it can raise and lower -- belong to breeding season on northern marshes, but Texas birds occasionally show the first hints before they leave in spring.

It is a scarcer find here than its Eared Grebe cousin, usually appearing as singles scattered among the winter rafts on the bigger Highland Lakes, riding low and diving long. Telling the two apart is a classic winter exercise: the Horned's white cheek and thicker, pale-tipped bill against the Eared's dusky face and peaked crown.

Globally the species is listed as Vulnerable, its breeding wetlands shrinking across Canada -- one more reason a Texas encounter deserves the long look and the photograph.

This bird was wintering on Lake Buchanan in January 2026, working the same open water as the loons and Bonaparte's Gulls. The red eye is the picture: wait for the head-turn that puts low winter sun into it, and the whole portrait switches on.