Pied-billed Grebe

Podilymbus podiceps

'Pied-billed' is for the black band on its pale bill. Its scientific name is the real surprise: Podilymbus is built from an old word meaning 'feet at the rump,' because its legs sit so far back on its body.

Podilymbus combines podicipes, 'feet at the rump,' with the Greek kolymbos, 'diver'; podiceps comes from the same word for 'rump.' "Grebe" itself is a mystery. English borrowed it from French grèbe in the 1700s, from a local name in Savoy, in the French Alps. The first bird book to use the word, in 1555, put it on a gull.