Identifying Horned and Eared Grebes

I spent most of my first six months birdwatching seeing only the Pied-Billed Grebes, wanting very badly to see anything else. Despite the dozen or so “different looking” Pied-Bills that gave me false starts, it turns out nothing else in North America (today) resembles it. At least in Texas, there are only two confusing species pairs: Clarks/Western Grebes, and wintering Eared/Horned Grebes, treated here.

I made this (my first such!) powerpoint as a way of learning by learning how to teach the difference between the latter pair, in between a near miss with seeing my first wintering Horned Grebe, and later success with the same. I’ve since gotten to see several of both (at time of writing), and these notes have held up very well for me!

The pdf is embedded below, but here’s a direct link to it too.