Great Crested Grebe - status

Podiceps cristatus

Breeding resident, winter visitor and passage migrant.

Breeding Great Crested Grebes inhabit fresh waters throughout the non Arctic Palearctic and are variously resident, migratory and dispersive.

In Pembrokeshire the Great Crested Grebe was considered to be a not very common winter visitor by Mathew (1894), a rather scarce winter visitor by Lockley et al (1949) and a sparse winter visitor by Donovan and Rees (1994).

Throughout this period there was an increase in the UK breeding population, following the cessation of persecution post 1860. This increase has continued in the long-term, e. g. a 28 % growth nationally between 1995 and 2005 as measured by the BBS.

The number visiting Pembrokeshire also increased, from 13 in 1936, through 19 in 1963 and 28 in 1985, to the subsequent annual totals recorded, as follows: