I went birding at Point No Point today and it was SO COLD AND WINDY. I got two life birds: a Red-Breasted Merganser and a Western Grebe, two water birds with terrifying red eyes like they are murder robots:
western grebe
red-breasted merganser
The grebe I was unsure at first because there are other birds with similar swoopy grey-white neck situations (see: loons, murres, murrelets, etc) then I saw the little murder-bot eyes and was like THAT'S A FUCkEN GREEEEEEBE.
As much as these two nightmares look like they should be related, they aren't. The merganser is a type of diving duck (has a flat bill used for chompin' fish it dives down for) while the grebe is a different type of diving bird (pointy bill used for...stabbing? i guess?). Apparently DNA shows that grebes are more closely related to Flamingos than to Loons or Coots or Ducks.
I guess my IDing waterfowl class is coming along okay because now I know the difference between a diving duck (see above) and a dabbling duck (just tips its butt up in the air so it can grab fish but stays floating on top of shallow water instead of actually diving) and things that aren't ducks.