Who are the «Poganki»?

As part of the Project "Let's save the Red Book birds of Russia together!" we want to tell you about the waterfowl with the strange name "Poganki"

To date, 3 species of grebes are considered extinct, and, for example, the red-necked and black-necked grebes are listed in the Red Book of Russia and the Red Book of the Vladimir region.

These waterfowl are often mistaken for ducks, but they have nothing to do with them. In addition to external differences from ducks, grebes differ in the structure of bones, due to which they sit deeper on the water than many other waterfowl. The bones of toadstools are mostly not hollow and to a lesser extent filled with air.

A distinctive ability that allows grebes to carry the title of the best divers is their paws, which are carried far back and turned into a kind of oars. Each finger of the toadstool is turned into a kind of blade. Grebes dive without making splashes, and hunt perfectly underwater, while they dive with one sharp throw headfirst, which allows them to dive at an almost right angle and to a great depth.

However, because of this structure of the paws, they are extremely clumsy on land, which is why they prefer floating nests.

Interesting fact

Both flamingos and grebes originate from far South America. Despite the fact that now they look completely different from each other, these birds were the closest relatives about 50 million years ago.
Unjustified for outwardly charming birds, the name "Grebe" was given to them for the terrible taste of their meat, which smells strongly of fish.

The project is being implemented with the support of the Presidential Grants Fund.

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