Bird

Horned Grebe

Podiceps auritus

A winter visitor to Virginia, found in all 133 counties and cities and 11 habitats.

Here: Winter and on migration
Nesting: Not known to nest here
Range: All 133 counties and cities
Habitats: 11

Male Horned Grebe, whole bird — **Male**. (c) Lisa Wiencek Gerbec, some rights reserved (CC BY). CC BY. iNaturalist photo 16065549. iNaturalist large derivative; no local crop or retouch.

At a glance

Group: Birds
Here: Winter and on migration
Nesting: Not known to nest here
Range: All 133 counties and cities
Habitats: 11
Habitat models: Winter

Where it lives

The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.

Habitats in Virginia 11

Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.

1 of 11

WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Streamhead Seepage Swamp - Pocosin - and Baygall; Central Interior and Appalachian Swamp Systems; Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Plain Swamp Systems; Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Tidal Wooded SwampWilliam McIlvaine, The Chickahominy Swamp (1862): wind-tossed swamp trees standing in dark water under a storm. Chickahominy Swamp, VirginiaThe Chickahominy Swamp LCCN2004661405, William McIlvaine (1813-1867), 1862. Public domain. Source record.

Coastal dunes and beaches

Open sand of beaches, dunes and the hollows between them.

WinterUnconsolidated Shore (Beach/Dune); Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain Interdunal Wetland

Coastal tidal marshes (salinity not stated)

Tidal marshes of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts where the source does not say whether the water is fresh, brackish or salt. A stated salinity files the marsh under freshwater tidal marshes or salt and brackish marshes instead.

Winter

Depression ponds and limesinks

Shallow ponds in Coastal Plain depressions, such as limesinks and the ponds in some Carolina bays, that rise and fall with the seasons.

WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Depression Pondshore

Disturbed and introduced wetlands

Wet ground taken over by weedy or introduced plants after disturbance, such as common reed, Chinese tallow or tamarisk stands; the upland counterpart is roadsides, fields and disturbed ground.

Winter

Freshwater tidal marshes

Marshes along tidal rivers where the water is fresh but rises and falls with the tide.

WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh

Mountain bogs and fens

Wet, open, peaty mountain wetlands fed by seepage, often with sphagnum moss.

Winter

Pocosins and bay forests

Dense evergreen shrub wetlands and bay forests on wet, acid peat of the Coastal Plain.

WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Peatland Pocosin; Atlantic Coastal Plain Streamhead Seepage Swamp - Pocosin - and Baygall

Ponds, lakes and their shores

Still water and its edges: ponds, lakes, millponds and reservoirs.

WinterOpen Water (Fresh); Atlantic Coastal Plain Large Natural Lakeshore

Salt and brackish marshes

Coastal marshes flooded by salty or brackish tides.

WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh

Sounds, bays and tidal flats

Salt and brackish open water of sounds, bays and estuaries, with the mud and sand flats and seagrass beds that tides cover and uncover; the vegetated marsh is salt and brackish marshes.

WinterOpen Water (Brackish/Salt)

Other habitats in its models (20)

Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Virginia. Those recorded in Virginia first, the rest by region.

Elsewhere in the South (11)

Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Winter.
Central Florida Herbaceous Pondshore Winter.
Central Florida Herbaceous Seep Winter.
Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Winter.
Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
Southern Coastal Plain Herbaceous Seepage Bog Winter.
Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp Winter.
Southern Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall Winter.
West Gulf Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall Winter.

Land cover and other classes (9)

Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Forested Wetland Winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland Winter.
Central Interior and Appalachian Shrub-Herbaceous Wetland Systems Winter.
Open Water (Aquaculture) Winter.
Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Nupea Modifier Winter.
Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Pine Modifier Winter.
Texas-Louisiana Coastal Prairie Slough Winter.
Unconsolidated Shore Winter.
Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Winter.

All habitats

Seasons in Virginia

Migratory: does not nest here, in 90 of 133 counties and cities.
Winter: does not nest here, in 64 of 133 counties and cities.

County or city

Also found in its main habitats

Its main habitats in Virginia, by how much of its habitat model each one is, with the birds most characteristic of each and the plants that grow wild there. Shared habitat, not food.