Volume 27, Issue 80, July - December, 2026

First confirmed national record of Red-necked Grebe (Podiceps grisegena) in Nepal: Documentation of a rare winter vagrant bird

Sugam Guragain^1♦, Susmita Chaudhary¹

¹Agriculture and Forestry University, Nepal

^♦Corresponding Author
Sugam Guragain, Agriculture and Forestry University, Nepal

ABSTRACT

The Red-necked Grebe is a winter vagrant water bird to South Asia and is distributed across the Europe, Asia, and North America. It belongs to family Podicipedidae and breeds in marshes and lakes. This is the first confirmed record documentation of the species from Nepal. It was recorded at Bulbule Lake, Surkhet, Nepal on October 15, 2025, with photographic evidence. This record extends the known distribution of the species globally and highlights the importance of wetlands as stopover sites, breeding habitats and roosting places for rare migratory waterbirds. The observation of the Red-necked Grebe highlights Nepal's importance as global biodiversity hotspot along major migratory routes. This also highlights the need for conservation and protection of wetlands, contributing to Nepal's bird diversity.

Keywords: wetland, migratory bird, Nepal, first record, grebe, Red-necked Grebe

Species, 2026, 27(80), e22s3299

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Published: 25 August 2026