The Pūteketeke or Australasian crested grebe

7 Jul

In the 1980s there were an estimated 200 grebes in total left in New Zealand. This distinctive diving bird was facing extinction, joining the many other extinct native species. The grebe is found in southern lakes of Aotearoa New Zealand, including Lakes Wānaka and Hāwea.

In 2023, the Australasian crested grebe, Pūteketeke, was awarded New Zealand’s ‘Bird of the Century.’ In January 2024 a census of NZ lakes and lagoons revealed a minimum population of 1,047 grebe - a 50% increase in their population since 2014 and over 500% since their low point. Grebes are still a nationally threatened species but still increasing.

This video was put together by Brian Anderson and gives a brief glance into the life of a grebe.

The increase in grebe numbers is in a large part due to John Darby, who was instrumental in learning about and protecting grebes in Lake Wānaka. When he first began learning about the species, he was amazed at how little research had been undertaken. He wrote to the Wānaka Sun to ask where people had seen grebes, or if people might know where to find them. The response was Lake Hayes, Lake Dunstan and Lake Wānaka. John started kayaking around Lake Hayes once a week from October 2013 to January 2014 to observe the grebes and come up with strategies for improving their survival.

Grebes like to nest in shallow water which exposes them to predators, especially stoats dropping from shoreline trees. Grebes are more successful breeding in floating nests. They tend to lay 3-4 eggs, laying each roughly one to two days apart. Incubation starts immediately and lasts 24 to 26 days. Around 2-3 days before hatching the chicks can be heard “peeping” in the eggs (if you’re lucky enough to find a quiet spot close by). As soon as a chick is hatched, it climbs onto the back of the adult. John Darby explained, “…that's an extraordinary behaviour, but as an anti-predator strategy it's a very interesting one because once it's got a chick on its back and it's threatened from any direction, it can fall into the water with its chick.”

Grebes lose nests often and may have to rebuild two or three times a season. This can be because of predation, wind, or the rise and fall in lake levels (Lake Wānaka can fluctuate two metres in a week). John thought that if floating platforms away from the shore were provided for grebe nests, it could improve nesting and reduce predation.

John attached the first nest to the Wanaka Marina at 9pm one night, nervous that someone may find the heap of straw and rubbish suspicious. The next morning, he found a pair of grebes improving the nest he’d created. In that first year, John built six nests, three of which failed. Three chicks fledged that year.

The design of the platform for grebe nest was fine-tuned, and as the numbers of grebes grew, they would fight between themselves over the platforms, proving the platforms’ success. In 2025, John told the Upper Clutha History Society that these efforts resulted in approximately 530 chicks that have fledged “…a high proportion won’t have survived, but an awful lot has.” Additionally, at that point there were eight different localities (including Christchurch, Queenstown, Ohau, and on the West Coast) where platforms were used to assist nesting grebes.

A group of school students, The Greeblies, help with the efforts to protect grebes in Lake Wānaka.

Listen to John Darby discuss the grebes in Lake Wānaka here: