Can Great Crested Grebes Fly?

There's no denying that some grebe lineages are, indeed, evolving towards a flightless condition (or have reached it already), but this notion of grebes as “poor fliers” is erroneous, as it often is when said of birds with high wing-loading and rapid, direct, 'heavy' flight.

Can grebes fly?

Pied-billed Grebes are fairly poor fliers and typically stay on the water—although rare individuals have managed to fly as far as the Hawaiian Islands, Europe, the Azores, and the Canary Islands. Pied-billed Grebes can trap water in their feathers, giving them great control over their buoyancy.

Do great crested grebes migrate?

Great Crested Grebes are capable of substantial migratory movements, which see individuals from elsewhere in Europe arrive to winter around our shores. ... Some of the largest concentrations of wintering grebes are found in the Netherlands and the southern Baltic.