We recently took a trip down to Pemaquid Point on one of the gorgeous sunny days we had just after the spate of mid-February snowstorms. The place was unusually calm, with views of Monhegan Island 10 miles distant, so clear that, with our birding telescope, we could see many familiar landmarks like the Island Inn and the Monhegan Lighthouse. Despite the calm, or perhaps because of it, there were relatively few birds to see. There were some small flocks of common eiders and a handful of those puffin relatives, the black guillemots. A flock of about 50 purple sandpipers, the northernmost wintering of our sandpipers, flew by and disappeared to south of us. We saw a few common loons diving repeatedly a few hundred yards offshore. Single long-tailed ducks and red-breasted mergansers made brief appearances, and there were the ever-present herring gulls.

Just before we were about to leave, up popped a lone red-necked grebe.

Grebes are most easily described as rather loon-like waterbirds. In fact the most recent scientific evidence shows that grebes are not at all closely related to loons but more so to—ready for this?—flamingos! Grebes do share similarities to loons in that they are waterbirds with feet positioned far back on the body; they have more dagger-like bills as opposed to the flattened bills of ducks and geese; they eat fish and aquatic invertebrates, and most nest in freshwater lakes and ponds, with many wintering in marine environments.

One oddity that is apparently unique to grebes is that they swallow their own feathers, and balls of these feathers are always found in their stomachs. It is not clear what the feather balls do, but ornithologists have speculated that they may aid in the formation of pellets of bones or other indigestible material that are then regurgitated.

Red-necked grebes have a North American breeding range (they also nest in Europe and Asia) that is largely confined to Canada and Alaska, though some breed into the northern parts of the lower 48 U.S. states bordering Canada between Washington State and Wisconsin. More than 90 percent of the population is estimated to breed within the Boreal Forest region stretching from Alaska through Ontario and sparingly into the northwestern edge of Quebec. They leave this vast range in summer and head to both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts for the winter. The stretch of the coast from Maine to Nova Scotia often harbors some of the highest numbers of red-necked grebes in winter along the entire Atlantic Coast.

In the winter one could be forgiven for wondering why the red-necked grebe is so named, as its neck is a dull gray. But as spring gets closer, red-necked grebes begin to develop the intense rufous-red neck for which they are named. Offset by a grayish-white cheek patch, dark cap, and yellowish bill, a red-necked grebe in its breeding plumage finery is a beautiful bird.

As we move into March we may begin to see larger numbers of red-necked grebes amassing at favored feeding areas along the Maine coast as they get ready to migrate north. Interestingly, red-necked grebes are thought to be mostly nocturnal migrants although they are regularly seen migrating at coastal locations and most famously at Whitefish Point along Lake Superior, which registers some of the biggest migration counts of the species in North America. Like loons, they fly with their feet trailing behind them in flight and their necks outstretched in front and dipped below the level of the body. This makes for a silhouette that is quite distinctive from other birds like ducks and cormorants.

If you’re out and about this winter and see a loon-like bird on the ocean that’s not a loon, perhaps it is a red-necked grebe, minus the red-neck.

Jeffrey V. Wells, Ph.D., is a Fellow of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Dr. Wells is one of the nation's leading bird experts and conservation biologists, and author of “Birder’s Conservation Handbook.”  His grandfather, the late John Chase, was a columnist for the Boothbay Register for many years. Allison Childs Wells, formerly of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is a senior director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine, a statewide nonprofit membership organization working to protect the nature of Maine. Both are widely published natural history writers and coauthors of the book, “Maine’s Favorite Birds.”